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ADDRESS 

OF  THE 

FRIENDS  OF  THE  NATIONAL,  ADimtflSTRATXON 

TO  THE 

CITIZENS  OF  WASHINGTON  COVNTY,  Fa. 


Fellow  Citizens — At  a  very  large  and  rcspecta-jjhis  true  claims  for  popular  favnr^extremely  embar- 
ble  meeting  of  the  "Friends  of  the  present  Adminis 
tration,"  held  at  the  court  house  in  the  borough  of 
Washington,  Pa.  on  Wednesday,  the  26th  Septem- 
ber, 1827,  we  were  appointed  a  general  committee 
of  correspondence,  with  instructions  "to  prepare  a 
suitable  argumentative  address,  on  the  subject  of  the 
Presidential  election,"  which  "will  embrace  in  a  for 
cible,  but  decorous  manner,  the  prominent  points  of 
controversy."     We  cannot  but  be  deeply  sensible  of 
the  delicacy  and  difficulty  of  the  duty  thus  imposed. 
Two  distinguished  men  are  candidates  for  the  first 
office  in  the  gift  of  a  free  people;  and  the  choice  is  to 
be  determined  by  the  estimation  of  their  respective 
merits.   One  of  them  is  pre-eminent  for  his  civic  vir- 
tues and  the  arts  of  peace:  the  other  is  admired  for 
the  splendor  of  his  military  suecess.     The  one  the 
most  profound  statesman  and  diplomatist, — the  most' 
enlightened  civilian,  perhaps  of  the  age,  the  other  aj 
brave,  vigorous,  and  fortunate  commander,     in  this 
single  view  of  the  case,  without  enquiring  further  in- 
to the  qualifications  and  personal  character  of  the 
two  men,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  preferring  JOHN 
QUINCY  ADAMS,  to  his  competitor,  Guneral  An 
drew  Jackson.     A  summary  of  the  argument  that 
presents  itself  in  support  of  this  determination,  is 
contained  in  the  third  resolution  of  the  meeting  to 
which  we  have  referred:  "  The  true  interests  of  the  U. 
Stales  are  pacific ,  and  our  policy  ought  to  be  peaee- 


II  is  one  of  those  probli'ms  in  the   human 
character,  which  has  never  yet  been  explained,  that 
the  imagination  is  dazzled  and  (he  judgment  pervert- 
ed by  the  "pomp  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war" 
the  splendor  of  military  appearance,  and  the  pride 
of  military  success.    It  is  right  that  the  man  who  has 
led,  through  the  danger  of  battle  to  the  triumph  of 
victory,  should  have  not  only  rewurd,  bHt  honor  and 
gratitude.    We  should  not,  however,  confound  these 
principles  with  that  undefined  feeling  which   swells 
our  respect  to  admiration,  and  our  friendship  to  idol- 
airy.  It  too  frequently  happens  that  a  successful  ge- 
neral becomes  '-the  man  of  the  pcoplef1     Re   binds 
their  affections — beguiles  their   reason — lulls  their 
suspicions — wields  their  power — and  at  length  leads 
them  on  to  the  destruction  of  their  own    liberties. 
No  people  were   ever  yet  enslaved  but  by  them- 
selves; and  we  venture  to  remark  that  nothing  has 
evei  been  so  fatal  to  freedom  as   the  inexplicable 
principle  we  have  mentioned.     History  will  aburi- 
antly  prove  the  truth  of  what  we  have  said;  and 
will,  we  think, shew  that  the  republics  of  antiquity 
all  fell  victims  to  military  usurpation,  aided  in  the 
outset  by  mistaken  popular  favor.     Divnysius  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  zeal  and  ability  in  the  defence 
of  his  country, — obtained  the  affections  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  consequently  the  chief  command — and  at 
ength  made  himself  tyrant  of  Syracuse — Jlgathcdcs, 


fid."    We  are  blessed  with  the  production  of  evcryi|by  similar  means  became  king  of  Sicily  ,with  absolute 


soil  and  every  climate:  Nature  has  bestowed  upon 
us  bountifully  her  kindest  gifts,  and  only  requires 
that,  by  a  well  directed  industry,  we  take  posses 
sion  of  them  All  we  can  wish  for,  then,  from  our 
social  organization,  is  wisdom  to  adjust  our. political 
economy,  and  safety  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  pros- 
perity which  it  will  procure.  These  are  to  be  found 
in  the  exercise  of  civil  talents,  for  the  enactment 
and  just  administration  of  mild  and  wholesome  laws, 
rather  than  in  the  tumultuous  hazard  and  strife  of 
arm3.  We  have  nothing  to  gain  by  war,  ai:d  we 
have  more  to  hse,  than  any  other  people  on  earth 
The  prevalence  of  military  spirit,  therefore,  or  any 
thing  which  has  a»  tendency  to  disturb  our  peaceful 
relations,  is  greatly  to  be  deprecated,  and  this  forms 
the  ground  of  our  first  personal  objection  to  GeneraTj 


and  uncontrolled  power,—  Cypsdus  overturned  the  o- 
ligarchy  of  Corinth.  Pisistratus,  was  the  advocate  of 
political  equality  and  the  democratic  constitution, 
until  he  secured  the  attachment  and  confidence  of  the 
people.  He  usurped  the  supreme  power  of  Athens, 
by  obtaining  a  guard,  for  the  purpose,  as  he  pretend- 
ed, of  protecting  him  from  assassination,  with  which 
he  took  possession  of  the  citadel.  He  then  disarmed 
the  multitude  and  became  master  of  their  persons. 
Sylla,  by  party  violence  and  military  power,  made 
hunself  perpetual  dictator  at  Rome  He  aterwards  re- 
signed and  retired  to  private  life,  but  Julius  Caesar, 
by  the  same  engines,  though  in  a  less  exceptionpble 
manner,  finally  put  an  euri  to  that  republic.  But  some 
may  say  that  these  examples  are  too  distant  to  have 
any  bearing;  that  the  present  age  is  too  much  en- 


Jackson.  It  must  be  admitted  that  his  pretensionsjllighteaed,  and  the  prineiple^  of  social  right  too  well 
are  purely  niilitary,  and  that  if  he  had  not  been  "Mej|understood,  to  allow  apprehension  of  any  such  catas- 
-Here  qfJ\\'W  Orleans,'''  he  never  would  have  been  a  Itrophe.     We  would  ask  the  attention  of  those  per 


candidate  for  the  Presidency.     We  are  aware,  that 
tha  hold  which  this  splendid  achievement  has  taken 


jsons  then,  to  France,  within  our  own  memory.    She 
had  just  delivered  herself  by  a  tremendous  effort, 


if 
;t, 

>.sjr. 

J  to 


'!        iblic  mind,  fenders  our  task  of  developing!  from  the  despotism  of  ancient  muuaici.v;  her  people 


were  brave  and  patient — with  strong  notions  of  free- 
dom. She  was  called  upon  to  resist  the  attack  of  ex- 
ternal foes,  and  a  taste  for  war  became  general.  Bo- 
naparte made  himself,  by  the  splendor  of  his  charac- 
ter, the  idol  of  a  military  population:  his  ambitious 
designs  were  hid  in  the  blaze  of  his  glory,  and  he 
stept  upon  the  imperial   throne,  at  a  time  when,  toj 
all  the  world,  the  flame  of  liberty  seemed  to  shine 
brightest.     We  ask  your  serious  reflection,  fellow- 
citizens,  to  these  suggestions;   they  are  deserving, 
we  conceive,  of  your  deepest  consideration.  It  is  dif 
ficult,  we  know,  to  bring  home  the  cold,  didactick 
precepts  of  reason  and  experience,  'o  wild  imagina 
tions  and  warm  hearts;  but  believing  that  we  see 
danger  ahead,  which  perhaps  many  of  you  do  not 
perceive,  we  feel  it  our  duty  to  warn  you  to  pause 
and  examine.    You  will  not,  we  think,  do  us  the  in-| 
justice  to  suppose  we  are  influenced  by  any  sinister 
motive  in   presenting _these  views  to  your  notice.! 
You  must  be  convinced  that  we  have  no  other  in- 
terest in  the  contest   than  each  of  you  have.     VVe 
are  all  embarked  in  the  same  political  vessel,  and 
will  sink  or  swim  TOgether.     The  question  is,  who 
shall  manage  this  helm?     We  are  for  choosing  a  pi- 


b!e,  in  some  degree,  who  sanctions  such  acts,  by  re- 
fusing to  enquire  into  the  exercise  of  the  authority 
which  he  has  delegated.  Gen.  Jackson  has  put  him- 
self on  trial  before  the  nation.  He  resigned  his  seat 
in  the  Senate,  that  he  might  be  a  candidate  for  the 
Presidency;  and  has,  therefore,  called  upon  the  peo- 
ple to  test  his  merits  and  qualifications.  We  go  on, 
then,  to  shew,  in  support  of  our  second  objection, 
that  Gen.  Jackson  is  a  man  of  dangerous  mind  and 
temper;  that  it  would  be  unsafe  to  entrust  him  with 
the  chief  civil  poicer  and  with  the  command  of  the  ar- 
my and  navy  of  the  United  Stales.  In  doing  this,  we 
shall  state  no  fact  without  referring  to  evidence,  nor 
will  we  draw  any  inference  that  we  do  not  consider 
perfectly  fair.  We  will  "nothing  extenuate,  nor  set 
down  aught  in  malice."  Our  review  shall  commence 
in  the  spring  of  1814,  when  Gen.  Jackson  led  an  ar- 
my of  Tennessee  militia,  against  the  Creek  Indians. 
In  this  war  he  manifested  bravery  and  skill,  but  there 
one  incident  which  ever}7  friend  of  humanity 
would  wish  to  blot  from  the  page  of  history.  On  the 
27th  of  March,  he  found  about  1000  Indians  at  their 
village  in  the  bend  of  the  Tallapoosie,  with  their 
squaws  and  children  "running  about  their  huts."  His 
lot  who  will  take  us  into  smooth  seas;  you  are,  per- 1: letter  to  General  Pinckney,  dated  on  the  subseq  uent 


'is 


haps,  for  one,  who  might  conduct  us  into  a  tempes- 
tuous ocean,  where  shoals  and  quicksands  abound 
Do  not  think  that  we  are  positively  unfriendly  to  Ge- 
neral Jackson.  We  disclaim  any  such  feeling.  Wre 
are  as  willing  as  any  of  you  to  give  him  reward  for 
his  services — honor  for  his  valor  and  gratitude  for 
his  patriotism.  But  when  he  claims  the  highest  ci 
vil  office  in  the  nation,  and  one  which,  in  our  opin 
ion,  requires  a  mind  of  different  structure  and  a  to 
tally  different  temper  from  his,  we  must  withhold  our 
assent.  The  ground  we  have  first  suggested,  to  the 
considerate  mind,  will,  we  think,  furnish  a  conclusive 
argument  against  him;  but  those  who  may  not  be 
convinced,  we  ask  to  accompany  us  in  an  examina 
tion  of  the  objection  we  have  last  hinted.  It  is  in 
substance  this — Gen.  Jackson  possesses  a  violence 
and  impetuosity  of  temper,  which  renders  him  an  un- 
safe depository  of  power.  He  is  bold,  daring  and  in- 
trepid; but  his  bravery  is  rather  physical  than  moral, 
and  his  energy  is  more  under  the  guidance  ofparsion 
than  principle.  His  perceptions  of  political  justice  or 
private  right,  are  very  indistinct  when  a  favorite  ob 
jeet  of  pursuit  engages  his  mind;  and  we  believe,  he 
would  not  be  restrained  by  taws  or  constitution  from 
indulging  his  own  wild  views  of  expediency  or  neces- 
sity. He  is  better  fitted  to  do  than  to  think — and  his 
conduct  indicates  more  \hoferccness  of  pride  and  au- 
thority, than  the  firmness  of  virtue.  With  such  a 
man,  the  gradation  from  legitimate  command  to 
usurpation, and  from  usurpation  to  tyranny,  is  too  ea- 
sy to  render  the  process  at  all  improbable. 

The  public  life  of  Gen.  Jackson,  we  think  furnish- 
es ample  proof,  that  the  view  we  have  taken  of  the 
prevailing  tendency  of  his  mind  and  temper,  is  cor- 
rect, and  that  the  danger  we  have  merely  hinted, 
may  be  seriousl}  apprehended.  In  support  of  our 
opinions,  we  shall  proceed  to  review  some  promi- 
nent incidents  of  his  military  conduct.  This,  we 
think  we  have  a  right  to  do  "in  a  forcible  but  deco- 
rous manner."  His  private  character  we  shall  not  as- 
sail, and  we  regret  that  it  has  been  introduced  in  the 
discussion  of  his  merits  for  office.  But  those  acts, 
which  he  has  done  with  the  power  of  the peojde  in  his 
hands,  we  conceive  are  fair  subjects  of  scrutiny.  In- 
deed, it  is  our  duty  to  examine,  into  the  conduct  of 
our  public  servants,  where  acts  of  oppression  or  cru 
t\Ur  are  alledged;  and  we  hold  every  man  responsi-l 


account   of  the- 


-we  cannot  call 


jday,  gives  an 
[it  battle.  He  says,  "determined  to  exterminate 
|them,  I  detached  General  Coffee,  with  the  mounted 
jmen  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Indian  force,  early 
jon  the  morning  of  yesterday,  to  cross  the  river, 
'about  two  miles  below  the  encampment,  and  to  sur- 
round the  hoid  in  such  a  manner,  as  that  none  of  them 
should  escape,  by  attempting  to  cross  the  river."  The 
|  result  he  details:  "Five  hundred  mid  fifty-seven  were 
left  dead  on  the  Pcninsida  and  a  great  number  were 
killed  by  the  horsemen  in  attempting  to  cross  the  river, 

IT  JS  BELIEVED  THAT  NO  MORE  THAN  TEN  HAD  ESCAP- 

•ed."     "  We  continued,''1  headds,cilo  destroy  many 
of  them  ivho  had  concealed  themselves  under  the  banks  of 
the  river,  until  ice  were  prevented  by  the  night.     This 
Morning   we   killed  16  which   had   been  concealed." 
The  village  was  burnt  to  the  ground,  several  women 
'and  children  were  killed,  and  the  remainder  made  pri- 
soners.    Extermination  indeed!!     He  who  can  read 
the  account  "with  composure,"  must  have  the  heart 
of  Timour  or  Kouli  Khan.     Miserable   remnant  of 
the  once  lords  of  the  forest,  who  held  in  free  domain 
this  mighty  continent.     In  an  evil  day  for  their  hap- 
[piness,  did  civilized  white  men  intrude  upon  them. 
They  have  been  driven  from  the  hunting  grounds 
where  the  bones  of  their  fathers  lie,  and  year  after 
year  is  the  surge  of  population  pressing  them   on. 
We  constantly  hear  their  complaints  pf  encroach- 
ment, and  yet  when  a  sense  of  injury  goads  their 
untaught  minds,   to  acts  of  violence  and   outrage, 
they  are  to  be  "exterminated.'1''     Some  we  know  will 
urge  that  savdge  enemies  are  not  entitled  to  quarters, 
and  we  admit  that  by  the  severe  laws  of  war  they 
are  not — they  maybe  struck  down  in  battle,  although 
they  offer  to  surrender.     But  when  did   an  army  of 
christians  surround  an  enemy  for  the  very  purpose  of 
putting  them  all  to  death;  of  preventing  any  from  es- 
caping?    The  rule  of  humanity,  which  is  the  foun- 
dation of  the  law  of  war  in  such  cases,  is  that  the 
moment  an  enemy  ceases  to  resist,  the  right  to  take 
away  his  life  also  ceases.     It  is  a  desperate  necessity 
only  which  can  warrant  the  destruction  of  human 
rational  beings,  and  when  that  does  not  exist,  a  ge- 
neral "is  responsible  to  God  and  to  man  for  every 
person  that  is  killed."    Sixteen  poor  trembling  wretch- 
es were  dragged  from  their  hiding  places  on  the  next 
morning,  and  in  cold  hi  tod  ]mt  to  death ! ! !     But  we 


3 


leave  ihis  case  to   the  consideration  of  the  candid 
and  the  pious.     If  it  does  not  manifest  in  the  com- 
mander, who  gave  the  orders,  more  the  spirit  of  ven- 
geance than  of  good  feeling,  our  hearts  deceive  us. 
The  extermination  of  the  poor  Indians  of  course  put 
an  end  to  the  war;  and  General  Jackson,  after  gar- 
risoning what  he  called  "the   conquered  country,'" 
returned  to  receive  an  oration  from  his   fellow-citi 
zens  at  Nashville.     In  his  reply  to  their  address  on 
that  occasion,  dated  4th   May,  1814,  he  says,  "we 
'  have  laid  the  foundation  of  a  lasting  peace;  these  fron- 
l  tiers  which  had  been  so  long  and  so  often  infested  by  the 
savages,  we  have  conquered."  It  is  material  to  remem 
?  ber  this  date  and  the  admitted  state  of  the  country,  be- 
cause, we  think,  it  has  an  important  bearing,  upon 
the  case  of  the  unfortunate  "six  militia  men,"  which 
we  will  now  proceed  to  examine.     John  Harris,  a 
Baptist  preacher,  in  Tennessee,  and  the  father  of  a 
family,  engaged  himself  to  go  out  as  a  substitute, 
for  one  Sharrill,  who  was  drafted  to  serve  a  tour  of 
garrison  duty  at  Fort  Jackson,  in  the  Creek  nation 
He  was   mustered   on  the  20th  of  June,  when  his 
term  of  service  commenced.     He  continued  in  the 
faithful  discharge  of  his  duty  until  the  19th  Septem- 
ber, when,  as  he  supposed,  his  time  of  service  had 
expired.     This  opinion  he  had  formed  from  the  act 
of  Congress  of  1795,  which  provides  "that  no  mili 
tia  man  shall  be  compelled  to  serve  more  than  three 
months  in  one  year."     He  had  also  been  told,  by  his 
officers,  that  the  period  of  his  legal  service  was  up 
On  the  19th  September,  then,  he  began  to  make  ar 
rangements  for  his  return  home  to  his  family;  and 
that  his  journey  through   the  wilderness,  might   be 
more  secure  and  comfortable,  he  endeavoured  to  as 
certain  who,  of  his  companions,  in  the  same  circum 
stances,  would  accompany  him;  and  at  their  request, 
wrote  down  their  names.     Having  returned  his  gun 
to  the  captain,  and  taken  a  receipt  for  it,  he  set  out 
for  Tennessee,  on  the  next  day,  with  a  number  ofl 
others,  whose  time  had   also   expired.     By  order  of 
Gen.  Jackson  (who  was  now  in  the  regular  service, 
having  been  appointed  about  the  31st  of  May)  they 
were  pursued  by  a  party  of  soldiers — were  dragged 
from  their  families — taken  back  to  Mobile,  and  put 
in  irons.     They  liy   in  that  situation,  unti1  the  6th 
December  (nearly  two  mouths  and  an  half  after  the 
alledged  offences   were  committed)  and  were  then 
tried  by  a  court  martial  and  condemned.     The  pro 
ceedings  of  the  court  remained  before  the  command 
ing  General,  Jackson,  until  the  22d  January,  1815, 
when  he  ordered  Harris  and  five  of  his  associates  to 
be  shot  to  death,  within  four  days;  and  the  wretch- 
ed men  were  EXECUTED   accordingly.     In  this 
awful  case  of  military  infliction,  there   are    many 
things  to  excite  the  deep  sympathy,  and  to  awaken 
the  scrutiny  of  a  free  and  feeling  people.     A  great 
portion  of  our  citizens  are  militia  men,  and  in  some 
possible  contingency,  might  be  placed  in  the  situa- 
tion of  Harris  and  his  unfortunate  companions.     It 
is  very*  important,  therefore,  to  know  whether  they 
can  be  put   to  death,  in  a  summary  manner,  for  as 
serting  their  right,  according  to  their  own  apprehen 
sion.     In  the  case  before  us,  there  is  not  a  doubt  but 
that  Harris   and   his  associates  firmly  believed  that 
their  time  was  up,   and  that   they  were  free  to  go 
Admitting;  that  they  were  mistaken  in  this,  wha-t  was 
the  necessity  that  induced  the  General  to  make  this 
bloody  sacrifice  to  violated  discipline?  Was  it  for  the 
sake  of  example?     Why  then  were  they  not  brought 
to  trial  immediately,  instead  of  keeping  them  in  irons 
for  more  than  two   months?     And   even  after  trial, 
why  was  the  or.dej  of  execution  withheld  \vntil  the 


22d  of  January,  nearly  a  month  after  the  treaty  of 
peace  was  signed?  Again,  we  would  ask,  why,- 
when  the  case  allowed  so  great  delay,  the'proceed- 
ings  of  the  court  were  not  transmitted  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  for  his  decision?  The 
65th  art.  of  the  ';i  ules"  for  the  government  of  the  ar- 
mies, &c.  provides,  that  no  "sentence  of  a  general 
court  martial  in  time  of  peace,  extending  to  the  lots  of 
life.  S?c.  shall  be  carried  into  execution  until  after  the 
icliolc proceedings  shall  have  been  transmitted  to  the  at 
cretury  of  war ,to  be  laid  before  the  president  of  the  IT. 
States,  for  his  confirmation  or  disapproval  and  orders  in 
tlie  case."  iNow,  although  sometimes,  the  necessity 
for  example  may  be  so  pressing  and  urgent,  in  time 
of  war,  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to  wait  for  the 
decision  of  the  President,  yet  that  cannot  be  assert- 
ed in  this  instance,  and  the  trials  of  Harris  and  the 
others,  were  fairly  within  the  scope  and  spirit  of  the 
provision.  But  in  fact  they  were  within  the  very 
letter  of  it  also.  Observe  that  General  Jackson  ad- 
mits, in  his  statement  to  Mr.  Owens,  that  these 
men  were  drafted  to  garrison  the  country  conquered 
from  the  Creek*.  Now,  that  war,  we  have  already 
shewn,  was  at  an  end,  at  all  events,  in  May,  1814, 
and  a  treaty  was  actually  made  on  the  9th  of  August 
following. 

At  the  time  then,  cf  Harris'  alleged  offence  in 
September,  1814,  the  country,  so  far  as  respected 
that  portion  of  the  military  force,  was  in  a  state  of 
peace.  It  will  not  do  to  object,  because  we  were  at 
war  still  with  Great  Britain,  that,  therefore,  the  pro- 
vision of  the  65th  article  will  not  apply;  because,  by 
entering  into  a  separate  treaty  with  the  Indians,  we 
admitted  that  they  were  not  connected,  or  in  com- 
mon cause  with  the  other  enemy.  The  country  must 
regret,  that  General  Jackson  did  not  pursue  the 
course  which  the  wisdom  and  humanity  of  congress 
intended.  If  he  had  forwarded  these  proceedings 
to  the  president,  Harris  and  his  miserable  compan- 
ions, in  suffering  and  death,  might  yet  have  been 
happy  husbands  and  fathers — and  honest,  useful  ci- 
tizens. The  policy  of  our  government  hay  always 
jbeen  opposed  to  the  severe  application  of  military 
justice;  and  accordingly  we  find,  on  the  17th  of 
June,  1814,  president  Madison  issued  his  proclama- 
tion, granting  a  full  pardon  to  all  deserters,  whe 
jshould  surrender  within  three  months.  But  our  sor- 
row for  the  unhappy  transaction  is  greatly  heighten- 
!ed,  when  we  come  to  examine  the  true  nature  of  the 
jcase,  as  it  respects  their  guilt  or  innoeence,  upon  the 
jlaw  and  the  faeis  as  now  developed.  We  believe 
there  was  no  evidence  sufficient  to  convict  them  of 
an  offence  even  against  municipal  law;  but  that  is 
immaterial  in  the  present  inquiry  Were  they  charge- 
able with  any  thing  contrary  to  the  rules  and  articles 
of  war  ?  Or  were  they  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of 
a  military  court?  We  answer  in  the  negative  to 
both  these  points;  but,  to  avoid  prolixity,  we  shall 
confine  ourselves  to  the  last.  The  question  occurs, 
then,  were  they  regularly  in  the  service  of  the  Unit- 
ed States,  when  the  alleged  offence  was  committed? 
If  they  were  not,  the  controversy  is  at  an  end,  for  it 
will  not  be  pretended  that  as  citizens  they  could  bo 
subject  to  a  military  tribunal,  lor  the  matters  alleg- 
ed against  them. 

We  have  already  noticed  theact  of  1795, limiting 
the  term  of  service  of  the  militia  to  three  months. 
By  an  act,  passed  the  18th  April,  1814,  it  is  declar- 
ed "that  the  militia,  when  called  into  the  service  of 
the  U.  States,  by  virtue  of  the  before  recited  act, 
(Feb,  28th,  1795,)  may,  if  in  the  opinion  of  the  presjr. 
•lent  the  piihlic  intcrcc-t  r^uiws  if.  be  Cp'mpellgd  to 


serve  for  a  term  not  exceeding  6  months,  alter  their 
arrival  at  the  place  of  rendezvous,  in  any  one  year." 
Gen.  Jackson  alleges,  that  these  men  were  drafted 
under  this  act,  for  six  months;  but  surely  it  is  neces 
sary  to  show  us  in  order  to  sustain  this  position,  that 
the  president  had  so  ordered.  This  had  not  been 
done;  and  on  the  contrary  it  now  appears  that  the 
only  authority  from  the  war  department  which'  in 
any  event  could  have  warranted  the  draft,  was  issu- 
ed by  secretary  Armstrong,  on  the  11th  January. 
1814,  and  evidently  under  the  act  of  10th  of  April, 
1812.  This  last  law,  however,  had  expired  by  its 
own  limitation  before  the  requisition  was  made.  To 
allege  that  the  call  was  in  pursuance  of  the  act  of 
18th  April,  1814,  is  at  once  to  admit  that  there  was 
no  shadow  of  authority  for  it,  as  the  order  of  the  se- 
cretary is  dated  more  than  three  months  before  that 
act  passed:  and  if  it  is  conceded  that  it  was  intended 
to  be  under  the  act  of  1812,  (as  the  requisition  of 
the  war  department  really  was)  then  it  is  not  sustain 
ed,  because  the  draft  was  made  after  that  law  had 
expired.  The  order  of  Gen.  Armstrong,  therefore, 
could  have  subsisting  relation  only  to  the  act  ol 
1795,  which  limits  the  term  of  service  to  three 
months,  as  we  have  shown.  Besides  we  do  not  see 
any  exigency,  to  make  a  longer  draft  at  all  necessa- 
ry. But  to  put  the  matter  at  rest,  we  allege,  and  un 
dertake  to  prove  that  these  men  were  not  called  into 
the  service  of  the  U.  S.  by  any  direct  requisition  of  the 
president,  and,  therefore,  any  pretence  that  they 
were  bound  to  serve  for  six  months  is  altogether  un- 
founded. In  the  first  place,  we  observe  that,  allho' 
this  affair  has  been  agitated  for  several  months,  and 
General  Jackson  has  been  writing  on  the.  subject,  in 
a  manner  that  shows  his  feelings  to  be  strongly  ex- 
cited, yet  he  has  furnished  to  his  friends  no  evidence 
that  the  war  department  ever  ordered  the  draft  as  itwas 
made.  This  negative  proof,  when  the  "onus  pro- 
bandi,"  lies  upon  the  accused,  might  be  suflicient. 
We,  however,  adduce  positive  testimony,  that  Gen 
Jackson  himself  directed  the  draft,  without  refer- 
ence to  any  requisition  from  the  president.  By  ; 
proclamation,  issued  from  '-head  quarters,  Nash 
ville,  May  24,  1814,"  and  signed  by  him  as  "major 
"general,  commanding  2d  division  of  Tennessee  mi 
"litia,"  he  announces,  "the  happy  termination  of  the 
"Creek  war,"  and  that  "good  policy  requires,  that 
"the  territory  conquered  should  be  garrisoned,"  S,-c. 
fyc.  He  then  adds,  "the  brigadier  generals  or  ofli- 
"cers  commanding  the  4th,  5th,  6th,  7th  and  9th 
"brigades,  of  2d  division,  will  forthwith  furnish,  from 
"their  brigades,  respectivel)' ,  by  drafts  or  voluntary 
"enlistment,  two  hundred  men,  with  two  captains, 
"two  first,  two  second,  and  two  third  lieutenants.and 
"two  ensigns,  well  armed  and  equipped  for  active 
"service;  to  be  rendezvoused  at  Fayetteville,  Lin 
"coin  county,  in  the  state  of  Tennessee,  on  the  20th 
"June  next,"  &c.  At  this  time  Gen.  Jackson  be- 
longed to  the  militia,  and  acted  under  the  order  of 
Gov.  Blount,  of  May  20,  1814.  He  was  not  in  the.  ser- 
vice of  the  U.  S.,  nor  under  the  orders  of  the  presi- 
dent, until  he  was  appointed  a  brevet  Maj.  General. 
in  the  room  of  Gen.  Harrison,  about  the  last  of  May. 
Harris  and  his  comrades  were  part  of  the  1000  men. 
that  were  thus  mustered  ''into  the  service  of  the  U 
S.  for  6  months."  But  Gen,  Jackson  says,  the  court 
found  that  they  "were  legally  in  the  service."  This 
suggestion  is  too  absurd;  it  is  a«#ording  to  the  pro- 
verb, "catching  at  straws."  It  was  not  a  part  of  the 
enquiry  before  the  court;  the  very  fact  of  the  men 
being  brought  before  a  military  tribunal  seemed  to! 
put  the  matter  out  of  question.     But  if  the  court /nv/' 


even  decided  so,  it  would  make  the  case  no  better 
for  the  General,  bee. '.use  he  knew  that  they  were  not; 
he  knew  that  neither  he  or  Gov.  Blount,  had  power 
to  draft  men  into  the  service  of  the  United  States, at 
pleasure,  contrary  to  law.  An  attempt  has  been 
made,  by  Mr.  Duff  Green  (editor  of  the  U.  S.  Tele- 
graph, at  the  city  of  Washington)  who  calls  himself 
the  'organ,"  of  the  friends  of  Gen.  Jackson,  to  im- 
pose upon  the  public  in  relation  to  this  affair,  in  a 
manner  that  evinces  quite  as  much  effrontery  as  in- 
genuity He  admits  that  no  order  of  the  president  ex- 
isted to  render  the  draft  for  six  months  legal  under 
the  act  of  18th  April  1814,  but  says  that  "in  no  case 
j  where  the  militia  were  called  into  service,  under  the 
act  of  1812.  did  the  president  issue  such  an  order, 
and  that  in  all  cases,  where  the  call  was  not  limited 
to  a  less  term,  the  militia  were  mustered  for  six 
months."  In  this  we  agree,  and  if  Mr  Duff  Green, 
had  been  so  far  influenced  by  truth  and  candor  as  to 
have  added  the  9th  section  of  the  law  of  1812,  under 
which  he  intimates  these  six  militia  men  were  called 
out,  we  should  not  have  been  under  the  painful  ne- 
cessity of  exposing  his  artifice,  ft  reads  in  these 
words,  "And  he  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act 
shall  continue  and  be  in  force  for  the  term  of  two 
years  from  the  passing  thereof,  and  no  longer." 
This  law  was  passed  on  the  10th  of  April,  1812,  and 
consequently  had  expired  by  its  own  limitation  on 
the  10//j  April,  1814,  more  than  two  months  before 
the  six  militia  men  were  mustered  into  the  service. 
Such  is  the  miserable  subterfuge  that  the  friends 
of  Gen.  Jackson  are  driven  to  in  this  desperate  case. 
They  dare  not  meet  the  truth,  and  .are  compelled  to 
lattempt  a  deceptive  defence  by  mutilating  an  obso- 
j  lete  act  of  congress,  that  has  no  more  to  do  with  the 
matter  than  a  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians.  As 
well  might  they  endeavor  to  sustain  him  by  adverting 
to  similar  provisions  in  the  acts  of  18th  April,  1806, 
and  30lh  March,  1808,  both  of  which  were  limited  to 
two  years,  and  had  accordingly  expired.  (See  Duane 
&.Wrightman*s  edition  of  the  laws  of  the  U.  Slates, 
4th  vol.  page  158,  407.)  The  fact  is  that  in  June, 
1814,  there  was  no  law  authorising  the  draft,  but  the, 
act  of  1795,  already  referred  to,  which  limited  the 
term  of  service  to  three  months,  and  the  act  of  18th 
April,  1814,  which  enabled  the  president,  as  already 
stated,  to  extend  the  time  by  a  special  order  to  six 
months,  if,  "in  his  opinion,"  the  "public  interest  re- 
j quired  it."  (See  laws  U.  S.  4th  vol  page  703.)  It  i3 
[admitted  that  no  such  order  trtfs  ever  given;  nor  indeed 
does  it  appear  that  the  government  bad  any  know- 
ledge of  the  draft.  Gen  Jackson,  as  we  have  alrea- 
dy shewn,  returned  to  Nashville,  on  the  14th  May, 
1814,  and  his  requisition  on  the  brigadiers  was  on 
the  24th,  only  ten  days  after.  In  this  interval,  it  is 
impossible  that  he  could  have  communicated  with 
the  president  on  the  subject.  That  no  other  law 
was  in  existence,  which  could  have  any  bearing  up- 
on the  case,  is  proved  by  the  requisition  made  by  the 
secretary  at  war,  on  the  governors  of  the  different 
states,  an  the  4th  of  July,  1814,  which  refers  ex- 
pressly to  the  acts  of  28th  February,  1705.  and  the 
18th  April,  1814.  Not  a  word  is  said  in  this  requi- 
sition, about  six  months  service.  The  quota  of  Ten- 
nessee is  thus  stated:  "Tennessee — 2  regiments  and 
1  battalion,  viz:  2500  infantry;  total  2500.  Gene- 
ral staff— 1  Brig.  Gen.  1  assistant  deputy  Quarter 
Master  General,  1  assistant  Adjutant  Ge.neial  "  The 
vain  device  that  has  been  employed  to  shelter  the 
conduct  of  General  Jackson,  in  this  horrible  affair 
from  public  indignation,  thus  disappears  before  the 
light  of  truth  and  the  force  of  evidence.  Not  a  doubt 


Jiangs  over  the  transaction.     The  unhappy  six  mili- 
tia men  were  never  legally  in  the  service   of  ihe  U. 
S.  for  six  mouths,  because  not  drafted  by  any  requi- 
sition from  the  war  department/or  that  period     The 
order  of  General  Armstrong  fixed  no  time,  and  hav- 
ing relation  to  the  act  of  1812,  of  course  died  with  it, 
at  least  so  far  as  respected  any  power  to  extend  the 
draft.     They   could  not  have   been   called   out   for 
more  than  three  months,  without  an  express  order 
from  the  president,    which   it  is   admitted    was  not 
made.     They  were  mustered  into  the  service  for  six 
months,  by    General  Jackson  himself,  who  had    no 
more  power  to  enlarge  the   time    <han  any  private 
man  in  the  nation.     On  the  20th  Sept.,   they  were 
by  the  law  of  t he  country,  free  to  return  home,  and 
no  man  had  a  right  to  prevent  them.     We  challenge 
contradiction  to  this  statement, — no  one  who  examines 
can  deny  the  facts  we  have  asserted,  and  we  hope  a 
regard  to  reputation  will  induce  a  little  calm  reflec- 
tion and  enquiry  before  the  imputation  of  "falsehood" 
i*  hazarded   again   upon  the   authority  of  Mr.  DufV 
Green.     There  is  another  thing  in  this  business,  per- 
haps as  inexcusable,  because  it  shows  a   total  disre- 
gard of  too,  in  a  matter  fully  within  the  pretensions 
of  General  Jackson,  as  a  commander.     By  the  arti- 
cles of  war,  a  case  affecting  life  can  only  be  tried  by 
a  general  court  martial,    which   may  consist  of  any 
"number  of  commissioned  officers  homjive  to   thir- 
teen inclusively;  hut  they  shall  not  consist  of  less  than 
thirteen  when  that  number  can  be  convened  without 
manifest  injury  to  the  service.'1   We  refer  to  articles 
87  and  64.     Hr.rris  might  have  been  tried  before  a 
full  court,  for  there  was  no  hurry  in  his  case;  and  be- 
sides, by  article  80,  when  there  arc  not  enough  of  of- 
ficers at  a  post,  the  party  accused,  and    witnesses, 
may  he  conveyed  to  the  nearest  detachment,   where 
a  sufficient    Dumber  can  be   had — Notwithstanding 
all  this,  the  wretched  militia  men  were  tried  by  three 
members  and   two   sapernumeraries,   the    number 
forming  a  regimental  court,  which,   by  article  tJT,  is 
expressly  prohibited  from  taking  cognizance  of  capital 
cases.     We  refer  to  the  report  of  Ihe  trial  of  Harris, 
.  as  certified  by   Andrew  Donaldson,  the.  nephew   of 
Jackson.     It  is.  to  be  sure,  now  said,  upon  the  autho- 
rity of  the  "Nashville  Committee,"  that  the  court 
consisted  of  Jive  members,  and  they  alledge   mistake 
in  their  former  publication      Whether  the  word  of 
men  can  lie  taken,  who  have  been  guilty  of  so  much 
misrepresentation  and  artifice  as  these  friends  of  the 
general,  we  leave  the  public  to  decide.  We  ask  you 
to  examine  (heir  publications  and  judge  oftheir  con- 
sistency and  candor.     They  admit  that  the  govern- 
or of  Tennessee  had  no  power  to  order  the  draft  for 
six  months,  but  to  evade  the  question  they  attempt 
to  deceive  by  prefixing,  a  section  of  the  act  of  Apiil, 
1814   without  giving  its  date,  to  the  order  of  the  se- 
cretary of  war,  issued  in  January,   (more  than  three 
months  before  its  passage)   with  a  view  to  induce  a! 
belief  that  they  were  connected — and  that  the  requi  j 
sition  had  reference  to  that  law — They  have   had 
the  boldness  to  assert,  in  the  face  oj  evidence,  which.) 
they  themselves   have   published,   that  Harris  was; 
found  guilty  of  mutiny,  robbery,  desertion,  Q-c. — ' 
They  have  endeavored  to  bring  their  hero  within  the' 
protection  of  the  law,  (as  they  know  it  to  bej  by  al- 
leging for  the  first  time,  that  the  offence  was  com- 
mitted before  the  three  months  service  expired,  when 
in  fact  the  officer  who  was  the  witness   against  Har-j 
ris,  according  to  their  own  report  of  the  trial,  declar-: 
ed  that  he  had  "behaved  well  as  usual  until  the  evening 
of  the  19th  Sept."  With  these  prevarications  and  dis> ' 
repaneies— and  many  others  we  could  point   out-* 


we  leave  you  to  say  whether  they  ought  to  have  im- 
plicit credit  for  any  statement  they  may  choose,  to 
make,  as  exigencies  in  their  case  occur. 

Feliow  citizens,  we  ask  your  serious  reflection  to 
this  awful,  melancholy  catastrophe.  The  soil  of  the 
country  is  stained  with  innocent  blood,  for  if  these 
wretched  sufferers  were  not  legally  in  the  service, 
the  specifications  do  not  set  forth  any  matter  which 
ought  to  have  put  them  on  their  defence.  Six  free- 
men, connected  by  dear  relative  and  social  ties,  in 
the  enjoyment  of  domestic  happiness  and  in  the 
peaceful  pursuit  of  honest  industry,  left  their  fami- 
lies and  their  firesides,  at  the  call  of  Gen.  Jackson, 
whom  thev  supposed  to  have  authority.  They  faith- 
fully discharged  their  duty,  during  the  whole  period 
that,  by  the  statute  book/they  could  be  compelled 
to  serve.  At  the  end  oftheir  time,  conceiving  that 
the  law,  and  not  the  arbitrary  ivill  of  any  individual, 
determined  their  rights  and  obligations,  they  return- 
ed to  their  homes,  without  violence,  with  the  know- 
ledge of  their  officers,  and  with  the  approbation  of 
some  of  them.  For  this  pretended  offence,  they  were 
seized  by  military  force  in  the  face  of  municipal  au- 
thority- -in  the  heart  of  the  country,  where  a  civil 
magistracy  was  in  the  exercise  of  its  functions— were 
carried  off—  ignominiously  ironed  as  felons-— and  af- 
ter a  long  confinement,  and  a  mockery  of  trial  before 
an  illegal  tribunal,  were,  by  order  of  Gen.  Jackson, 
shot  to  death.  _   # 

We  leave  this  case  with  you.  If  the  opinions  and 
feelings  of  an  enlightened  people  can  sustain  such  fla- 
grant'violations  oflaw--such  reckless  indifference  to 
human  suffering—such  wanton  destruction  of  human 
life-  -there  is  an  end  of  our  boasted  liberty,  and  iron 
handed  despotism  may  chain  us  down  at  pleasure. 
John  Harris  was,  perhaps,  an  obscure  person,  though 
a  preacher  of  that  divne  Saviour,  who  said,  "Blessed 
are  the  merciful  for  they  shall  obtain  'mercy."  Pos- 
sibly when  General  Jackson  issued  the  order  lor  his 
execution,  he  considered  it  a  matter  of  trivial  im- 
portance. But  yon  will  say,  fellow-citizens,  whether 
the  life  of  a  husband  aud'fahcrh  of  little  value. — 
Bring  the  case  home  to  yourselves;  your  wives,  your 
infants,  your  friends,  your  neighbors  realize  the  an- 
guish of 'widowed  hearts,  and  the  cries  of  the  desti- 
tute oiphaiis---rwid  then  exercise  your  elective  fran- 
chise in  the  way  that  humanity}  justice,  reason  and 
safely  shall  dictate. 

We  will  pass  over  some  intermediate  incidents 
with  but  slight  notice.  The  embargo,  imposed  upon 
the  ports  of  Mississippi,  Mobile,  &c.  although  as- 
sumptions of  sovereignty,  may  possibly  admit  of  jus- 
tification, under  the  sweeping  plea  of  "necessity;" 
and,  perhaps}  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  entry  in- 
to Ptmsacola.  a  neutral  place,  "stvord  in  hand."  We 
shall  not  stop  to  enquire;  hut  proceed  to  the  scene 
of  general  Jackson's  most  splendid  achievement. 
"JYeio  Orleans,"  we  know  has  become  almost  a  talis- 
manick  word;  and  has  been  used,  indeed,  with  ex- 
traordinary success.  It  seems,  with  many,  as  if  their 
sense  of  national  glory,  their  military  pride,  their 
gratitude  for  distinguished  services,  all  had  reference 
To  that  brilliant  defence.  We  would  not  pluck  a  leaf 
from  the  general's  lamel  crown,  and  shall  not,  there- 
fore, quarrel  with  his  devoted  Friends  about  it:  but^ 
we  certainly  never  did  see  in  that  affair,  either  as  U 
its  consequences  or  the  tactics  displayed,  any  thin/ 
which  ought  to  throw  in  the  shade  the  victory 
gallant  Perry— which,  we  conceive,  was  vastly  nq 
important,  indeed,  to  the  nation.  We  might  say 
same,  also,  for  that  of  commodore  MTJonough—^ 
perhaps,   even  the  battle  of  "Bridgewaler."     J*C- 


<-;- 


vnotwr  Wisioess^t  pnesenfc "trf  make  enquiry  VntottWe  shall  now   proceed  to  show   that  tfiese  ••rules' 
comparative,  merit— -all  we  ask  is  that  our  fellow-cit-   were  'rigidly  enforce.].'    In  o>der  to  avoid  contro- 


izens  would  look  steadily  through  the  blaze  of  glory, 
which  they  have  thrown  around  the  "hero,"  and  view 
with  impartiality  the  man— The  first  tremendous 
display  of  military  power  at  IScw  Orleans,  was  the 
proclamation  of  "martial  law,"  on  the  16th  Decern 
ber,  1814,  by  which  the  city  and  environs  were  plac- 
ed under  the  following  rules,  viz: — ''Every  individ- 
ual entering  the  city  Will  report  at  the  adjutant  gen 
eral's  office,  and    on   failure,  to  be  arrested  and 
held  for  examination."     "No  person  shall  leave  the 
city  without  permission  in  writing:  signed  by  the  gen 
eral  or  one  of  his  staff."     "The  street  lamps  shall  be 
extinguished  at  the  hour  of  nine  at  night,  after  which 
time  persons  of  every  description,  found  in  the 

STREETS,  OR  NOT  AT  THEIR  RESPECTIVE  HOMES,  With 

out  permission  in  writing:  as  aforesaid,  and  not  hav- 
ing the  coCNTERsiGN,sha!l  be  apprehended  as  SP1ESJ 
and  held  for  examination."  &,c. — To  the  citizens  of 
this  free  republic,  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
took  to  the   statute  hook  and  the  decisions  of  civili 
courts  for  the  determination  of  their  duties  and  ob 
ligations,  and  who  have  had  no  other  fear,  than  that1 
of  a  sheriff  and  constable  before  their  eyes,  these! 
■"rules"  may  seem  very  strict,  and,  perhaps  they  may 
fee  curious  to  know  by  what  code  the   tresspassers 
were  fo  be  adjudged. "  They  will   be  astonished  to 
learn  that  the  mere  v.mi.t.  of  the   commanding  gen- 
eral was  the  arbiter  of  fate.     Chains  and  death  fol- 
lowed his  decree.     Bat  as  we  shall  have   occasion 
hereafter  to  speak  of  "martial  law,"  it  may  be  well 
enough  to  ascertain   what  it  is. — We  will  give  the 
definition  in  the  words  of  sir  Matthew  Hale:  "Mar- 
tial law  is  in  reality  mo  law,  but  something  indulged 
rather  than  allowed  as  law.     The  necessity  of  ohder, 
and  discipline  in  an  ahmy  is  the  only  thing:  that  can 
give  it  countenance;  and,  therefore,  it  ought  not  to 
be  permitted  in  time  of  peace  when  the  courts  are 
open  for  all  persons  to  receive  justice   according 
to  the  laws  of  the   land."     It  is  the  absolute  power 
which  a  commander  in  chief  uses  over  the  soldiery. 
This  dangerous  authority  has  only  relation  to  the  go- 
vernment of  the  army;  it  has  no  operation  upon  the 
citizens,  to  whom  the  ordinary  administration  of  mu- 
nicipal jurisprudence  is  accessible.     Jl  country  can 
never  be  placed    under  martial  law,  because  it  can- 
not he  entirely  occupied  as  a  camp;  nor  can  a  city. 
unless  it  is,  also,  a    garrison.     General  Jackson,  by 
his  overwhelming  decree,  annihilated  the  sovereign- 
ty of  Louisiana:  he  extinguished  the  legislative  and 
judicial  functions  of  the  government,  and  of  course 
nothing:  was  left.     This  was  his  intention,  as  deelar 
ed   in  his    reply  to   an  address  of  the  citizens.     He 
says,  martial  law.  "while  it  existed,  necessarily  sus- 
pended all  rights  and  privileges  inconsistent  with  its 
provision:"  and  l.e  afterwards  speaks  of  having  "re- 
stored the  civil  poiver  to  its  usual  functions;"  thus  ad- 
mitting that  they  had  been    for  a   time  destroyed. 
What  then  was  the   situation  of  the  people?     Why 
that  of  slaves;  as  completely  so  as  arbitrary  will  and 
despotic  powe*  could   make  them.     They  were  lia 
ble  to  be  {'apprehended,"  condemned   by  a  military 
court,  and  shot,  without  judge  or  jury — without  re- 
medy or  appeal;  and  this  too,  not  merely  for  offences 
defined  in  the  articles  of  war.     New  crimes  are  cre- 
ated and  undefined  penalties  denounced.     He  cstab 
lishes  a  "curfew,"  and  by  an  unaccountable  perver- 
sion, declares  that  all  persons  found  from  home  after 
f»  o'clock   shall  be  seized   as   "spies,"'  and  of  course 
dealt    with  under  Hie  ''second  section,"  which   ex- 
Rceasly  relates  only  to  those  who  are  'hot  citizens.1 


versy,  however,  we  will  agree  that  all  acts,  done  un- 
der this  tremendous  system,   prior  fo  the  news    of 
peace,  shall  be  covered  by  the  plea  of 'necessity.' — 
Let  us  then  come   fo  that  period.     O;:  the  I9th  of 
February,  1815,  general  Jackson  announced   that  a 
flag  ship  had  arrived  with  news  that  the  treaty   had 
been  signed  on  the  24th  December,  at  Ghent.   This 
intelligence  the  editor  of  the  Louisiana  Gazette,  gave 
to  the  public  on  the  21st  of  February;  and  on  the 
same  day  his  printing:  establishment  was   put  under 
'martial  law,'  and  he  was  prohibited  from  publishing 
any  thing  on  the  subject,  unless   he  had  'permission 
from  the  proper  source.'  On  the  28th  February,  the 
consul  of  France,  and  many  French  subjects,  were 
banished,   because  they   refused  to  remain  in  the 
ranks  as  soldiers,   considering  the  war  at  an  end. 
"The  existence"  of  martial  law  was  reiterated  on  the 
4th  of  March,  and  the  "second   section"  published 
"by  command."     On   the  next  day  the  general  is- 
sued his  order,   reciting  the  decree  of  banishment, 
and  enjoining  all  officers  and  soldiers  to  arrest  the 
persons  described  therein,  and    confine  them.     A 
messenger  from  Washington,  who  was  sent  with  des> 
patches  relative  to  the  peace,  arrived  at  N.  Orleans 
on  the  7th  March,  and  on  the  next  day  Gen.  Jack- 
son, upon  the  request  of  a  number  of  officers  and  sol- 
diers, directed  his  order  of  banishment  to  be  sus- 
pended, "except  so  far  as  the  same  relates  to  the  che- 
valier de  Tousard,  who  is  not  to  be  permitted  to  come 
within  the  lines  of  the  camp  or  fortifications  without 
special  permission."  Here  then  was  "martial  law  ri- 
gidly enforced"   in  the  case  of  this  unfortunate  gen- 
tleman, (the  friend   and  former  associate  of  our  be- 
loved Lafayette)  after  the  general  was  informed   of 
the  peace  by  his  own  government.    But  this  was  not 
the  only  case     A  letter  from  N.  Orleans,  dated  10th 
March,  published  in  a  New  York  paper  at  the  time, 
shews  the  situation  of  things  as  then  existing.     It 
states  "that  martial  law  still  prevailed  there,notwith- 
standing  the  commanding  general   had  been   in   the 
possession  of  the  news  of  peace  for  several  days.  The 
district  judge  and  district  attorney  had  both  been  ar- 
rested by  a  military  guard  and  marched  off  to   head 
quarters, for  having  issued  a  habeas  corpus,  to  release 
from   confinement   a  citizen  of  New  Orleans,  who 
was  about  to  be  tried  by  a  "military   court  martial, 
for  "having  written  and  published  a  paragraph  which 
did  not  meet  the  approbation  of  the  General.     Ano- 
ther Judgje  of  one  of  the  courts  having  attempted   to 
interfere  for  the  release  of  his  brother  Judge,  shared 
a  similar  fate."     The  letter-writer  goes  on  to  state, 
"that  all    was  fear  and  dismay— no   one  could  tell 
whose  turn  it  would  be  next  to  fall  under  the  displea- 
sure of  those  exercising  the  powers  of  the   govern- 
ment."    The  evidence  which  Gen.  Jackson  himself 
has  placed  on  record  abundantly   proves    that  this 
view  is  not  exaggerated. 

The  case  alluded  to,  in  which  the  habeas  corpusj 
was  granted  by  Judge  Hall,  was  that  of  Mr.  Loual- 
lier,  a  gentleman  of  great  respectability  from  Ope- 
lousas,  and  a  member  of  the  legislature,  who  had 
distinguished  himself  by  his  patriotic  zeal  and  pri- 
vate benevolence.  After  the  decisive  victory  of  the 
8lh  of  January,  he  considered  any  further  attempts 
of  the  enemy  altogether  impossible.  General  Jack- 
son, also,  wrote  the  Secretary  of  War  on  the  19th 
January,  "that  the  enemy  had  made  his  last  exer- 
tions in  that  quarter  for  the  season."  This  gentle- 
man then  observed,  with  astonishment  and  apprehen- 
sion, the  continuance  of ' martial  law,'  without  a  sha-j 


dowof  necessity;  and  at  length  the  banishment  of! 
the  French  consul  and  his  countrymen,  induced  him 
to  question  the  propriety  of  the  order.  For  doing  so 
he  was  arrested  by  soldiers  and  confined,  to  be  tried 
by  a  military  court.  And  for  what?  Any  offence 
defined  by  the  articles  of  war?  Not  at  all.  It  was 
in  fact  for  presuming  to  oppose,  by  the  very  mild  re- 
monstrance, the  overwhelming  usurpation,  which 
had  totally  annihilated  private  rights  and  placed  the 
lives  and  fortunes  of  the  community  at  the  controui 
of  a  military  chief  Fortius,  (neiv  crime  in  aland 
which  boasts  of  the  liberty  of  the  press,)  he  was  put 
in  jeopardy  of  his  life. — While  in  confinement  under 
a  guard  of  soldiers,  separated  from  his  family  and 
friends,  on  the  5lh  March,  1815,  nearly  a  month  and 
a  half  after  the  enemy  had  retreated,  (which  was  pri- 
or to  the  21st  January,  as  the  General's  proclama- 
tion on  that  day  shews,)  and  more  than  two  weeks 
after  the  news  of  peace,  the  counsel  of  Mr.  Loual- 
lier, applied  to  the  judge  of  the  United  States1  dis- 
trict court  for  a  writ  of  'habeas  corpus.'  This  the 
judge  was  bound  by  his  duty  and  his  oath  to  grant; 
if  he  had  refused,  it  would  have  been  a  misdemea 
nor,  for  which  he  might  have  been  punished.  Ac- 
cordingly the  writ  was  allowed,  and  made  returna- 
ble on  the.  next  day.  On  the  same  evening,  howev- 
er, judge  Hall,  was  forcibly  taken  from  his  home, 

Br  A  PARTY  OF  SOLDIERS CARRIED  TO  THE  BAR- 
RACKS, and  there  confined.  The  clerk  of  the  Gourt, 
R.  Claiborne,  to  whose  deposition  we  refer  in  proof 
of  the  facts  we  now  state,  called  to  see  him  and  was 
kefused  admittance.  On  his  return  to  his  lodg- 
ings, he  was  met  by  a  Major  Chotard,  the  general's 
aid,  who  produced  an  order  from  the  general,  re- 
quiring him  to  give  up  the  original  petition  which  the 
judge's  allowance  endorsed.  The  clerk  observed, 
that  by  a  rule  of  the  court,  he  was  not  permitted  to 
deliver  an  original  paper  out  of  the  office;  but  saidj 
he  would  go  to  the  general  with  it.  He  did  so,  and; 
the  general  upon  seeing  the  paper,  declared  he  woultl 
keep  it.  The  clerk  objected  again,  the  order  of 
court,  to  which  the  general  replied,  he  would  keep! 
it  on  his  own  responsibility,  and  actually  did  so. — 
The  district  attorney,  Mr.  Dick,  applied  to  judge 
Lewis,  for  a  habeas  corpus;  to  relieve  his  brother 
judge.  Both  these  gentlemen  had  fought  in  the  de- 
fence of  the  city,  and  judge  Lewis  had  been  com- 
mended, in  general  orders,  for  his  good  conduct. — 
^et  they  were  both  arrested  as  traitors,  and  their 
lives  were  placed  at  the  peril  of  a  military  court. — 
Fellow  citizens,  these  things  are  true — we  challenge 
contradiction  of  a  single  fact  we  have  stated.  In- 
deed we  have  not  presented  them  in  so  strong  a 
point  of  view,  against  the  general,  as  a  more  full  de- 
velopement  of  them  would  have  allowed.  We  aim 
at  brevity  and  condensation,  in  order  that  we  may! 
be  able,  in  reasonable  compass,  to  show  the  ground 
we  take.  Will  you  now  in  justice  to  yourselves  and^ 
your  children  and  in  candor  to  us,  give  your  calmj 
reflection  to  the  principles  and  consequences  of  the! 
transactions  we  have  disclosed?  If  you  do,  we  ven-, 
ture  to  say  you  will  be  convinced,  that  never  was 
greater  usurpation  and  tyranny  committed  in  a  conn-; 
try  boasting  of  laws  and  liberty.     We  know  that  the,  in  authority  exceeds  the.  pon Vr  given  him  by  the  law 


lance  of  General  Jackson,  never  could  discover 
(hem.  Not  a  single  individual  was  ever  convicted 
of  such  a  crime;  nor  is  the  name  of  one  upon  record. 
On  the  contrary,  never  was  there  more  devoted  zeal, 
more  bravery  and  unanimity  than  was  displayed  by 
thecitizens  generally-  But  take  the  testimony  of 
General  Jackson  himself.  In  his  letter  to  the  mayor 
of  New  Orleans,  dated  January  27,  1815,  he  says, 
"I  pray  you  now,  sir,  to  communicate  to  the  inhabi- 
tants of  your  respectable  city,  the  exalted  sense 
I  entertain  of  their  patriotism,  lovej>f  order,  and 

ATTACHMENT    to  the    PRINCIPLES  of  OUT     EXCELLENT 

constitution."  Yet  over  such  a  people  it  was  neces- 
sary  to  duclare  and  enforce  martial  law — treating 
those  citizens,  for  whom  he  expresses  so  high  on  o- 
pinion,  as  'spies,1  if  seen  in  the  streets  after  9  o'clock 
at  night.  Let  us,  however,  hear  the  general  further 
— "Seldom  in  any  community  has  so  much  cause 
been  given  for  deserved  praise;  while  the  young 
men  were  in  the  field  arresting  the  progress  of  the 
foe,  the  aged  watched  over  the  city  and  preserved 
its  interal  peace;  and  even  the  softer  sex  encourag- 
ed their  husbands  and  brothers  to  remain  at  the 
post  of  danger  and  duty."  This  then  was  his  deli- 
berate opinion  at  a  time  when,  if  there  had  been 
treachery,  its  effects  must  have  been  experienced; 
for  it  was  three  weeks  after  the  battle,  and  ten  days  at 
least,  after  the  enemy  had  retreated.  Where,  we  ask, 
is  the  eandor,  and  where  is  the  justice  of  those  who 
would  charge  treason  against  the  people  oi  New  Or- 
leans, in  order  to  cover  from  public  view,  the  errors 
of  their  favorite  'hero?'  We  cajj,  again,  for  any  evi- 
dence that  ever  even  a  single  individual  was  guilty 
of  the  foul  crime,  which  is  now  imputed  to  the  Le- 
gislature and  people  of  Louisiana.  Will  the  case  of 
Louallier  be  relied  upon?  Is  the  publication  of  a 
paragraph,  in  a  newspaper,  to  be  called  treason  to 
the  state  because  offensive  to  the  pride  of  the  ge- 
neral? This  would  be  to  rivive  the  'crimen  loesae 
magistatis,'  in  ail  its  terrors  and  with  a  new  aspect. 
But  Louallier  was  not  convicted  of  any  offence  des- 
cribed either  in  the  articles  of  war  or  in  the  gene- 
ral's 'rules:  He  was  tried  by  a  court  martial,  the 
members  of  which,  fortunately,  had  independence 
and  virtue  enough  to  acquit  him  honorably  of  every 
charge.  We  may  then  assert  that  he  was  innocent, 
for  the  general's  own  tribunal  so  decided.  Yet  for 
allowing  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  this  injured  man, 
judge  Hall  was  'shopped,''  according  to  the  general's 
jocose  but  emphatic  expression  to  the  marshal;  when 
the  district  attorney  attempted  his  relief,  he  shared 
the  same  fate;  and  an  order  was  issued  to  arrest 
judge  Lewis,  because  he  had  been  applied  to  for  an- 
other writ.  Louallier,  too,  although  acquitted, 
was  continued  in  confinement  for  some  lime  longer. 
Allow  us  now  to  present  you  a  definition  or  two 
from  a  celebrated  writer  on  government,  Mr.  Locke, 
and  we  will  then  attempt  to  draw  the  conclusion, 
which,  we  think,  the  facts  a(  A  '•ircumstances  fairly 
warrant.     "Usurpation  is  t\  t  ie  of  a  power 

to  which  another  bath  a  right.     Tyranny  is  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  power  to  which  nobody  can  have  a  right.' 
Wherever  law  ends,  tyranny  begins:  and    whoever 


partisans  of  General  Jackson  defend  his  outrageous! 


— and  makes  use  of  the  force  under  his  command  to 


proceedings,  by  the  usual  plea  for  the  exercise  of  ar-'j  compass  that  which  the  law  allows  not,"  is  a  tyrant. 
bitrary  power— 'necessity:  They  say  that  the  people.  Apply  these  definitions  to  the  transactions  we  have 
of  New  Orleans  were  disaffected,  and  the  legislature 
traitorous,  that  the  inhabitants  were  in  correspon- 
dence with  the  British,  &c.  &c.  It  is  possible  there 
may  have  heen  persons  who  would  have  sold  their 
country  for  gold,  but  if  there  were,   even  the  vigi- 


been  examining  and  form  your  deliberate  judgment 
as  to  the  character  of  general  Jackson's  public  con- 
duct. We  allege  that  he  has  usurped  the  powers  of 
tiie  executive  and  legislative  branches  of  the  govern- 
ment; and  that  he  has  used  the  powers,  thus  assum- 


I 


ed.  tyrannically.     We  assert  that  he  Las  infringed!  elation  of  his  reason  for  "shopping  his  honor,  and  sjjs 


the  constitution,  disregarded  the  laws  and  violated 
the  private  rights  and  personal  safety  of  the  citizens 
Th  nccs  are  subrnittcid: 

In  the  case  of  the  'six  militia  men,'  we  say  that  the 
5ti,  ai  iicli    ;t  lue  ^amendments'  of  Hie.  constitution  of 
the  United  States  was   infringed,  by  calling  them  to 
answer  for  a  'capital  crime,'  without   'indictment  of 
a  grand  jury,' when  they  were  not  in  actual  service. 
neither  was  it  *in  time  of  war  or  public  danger,'  and 
in  having  'deprived    them'  of  life  'without  due  pro 
cess  of  law.'     The  articles  of  war  were   disregarded 
in  the  particulars  we  before  noticed.   We  have  waiv- 
ed any  discussion,  at  present,  as    to  the  right   to  de 
clare  martial  law  during  actual    hostilities,  so  far  as 
the  discipline  of  the  army  was  concerned,  but  we  as 
jert  that  the  continuation  of  it  one  day  after  the  ne 
cessity  ceased,  waj  an    infringement t>f'oor   free  in- 
stitutions and  rights  -was  tota.ily  illegal  and  tyranni- 
cal,    The  1st  article  ofthe'amendments'  was  violat- 
ed by  abridging  the  freedom  of  (lis  press.and  putting 
it  under  a  military  censorship*.     This    was   tyranny 
also,  according  to  our  definition;  for  it  was  'exercis 
ing  a  power  to  which   nobody,  (not  even  Congress) 
can  have  a  right.     But   the  great  barrier  of  the  po 
litical  safety  of  the  citizen  was   broken  down  in  the 
case  of  Loualiier  and  the  judges.     The  9th  sectior, 
©f  the  1st  article  of  the  constitution,  which  limits  the 
powers  of  Congress,  declares  that  "the  privilege  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  un- 
less when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the  public 
safety  may  require  it.'     Tberigbt  to  this  writ,  which 
is  the  only  security  we  have  against  the  exercise  Of 
arbitrary  power,  was    in  this  instance  entirely  taken 
away,  and  under,  the  extraordinary  and  violent  cir- 
cumstances we  ha'e  mentioned      The  office  papers 
were  illegally  withheld  from  the  clerk,  and  the  judge 
was  forcibly  dragged  away  and  imprisoned.  We  de- 
ny that  under  the  constitution,  even  congress,  in  this 
instance,  could  have  suspended  the  writ.  Peace  was 
made,  there  was  neither  irehUliciri>   nor  'uivrts/oV — 
nor  did  the  'public  safety  require  it.'  Gen- Jackson, 
however,  by  military  force,  defeated  the  right  in  the 
particular  case,  and  in  order  to  prevent  the  further 
interference  of  the  judge  with  his  proceed  ing,  'shop- 
ped /hot,' as  he  said.     Nov,-  in  what  situation  were 
the  people  of  New  Orleans?  General  Jackson  might 
have  imprisoned  hundreds  of  them  and   have   taken 
their    property  without  the    possibility  of  their   hav- 
ing  legal    redress.     The  only  remedy  would    have 
been  an  appeal  to  physical  force,  and  even  then  he 
would  have  had  the  advantage,  with  a  disciplined  ar 
my  and  the  means  of  war.   It  is  impossible,  we  think, 
for  those  who  have  candidly  examined  the  facts,  not 
to  believe  that  general    Jackson  was  influenced,   in 
■Louallier's  case,  by  feelings  of  resentment,   operat- 
ing upon  a  naturaily   overhearing   and  violent  torn 
per.     In  the  written  defence  which  he  offered,  in  the 
proceeding  against  him  for  these  oppressive  and  ille- 
gal measures,  he  says,  'To  have  silently  looked  on 
such  an  offence  (meaning  the  offence  of  Loualiier, 
which  in  the  opinion  of  the  court  martial  was  no  of 
fence  at  all)  without  making  an   attempt  to  punish  it, 
would  have  been  a  formal  surrender  «Vc.  of  all   per- 
sonal DittNiTV,"  $-c.     And  immediately  after,  he  in-| 
timates   his  own  apprehension,   that   the    party  Was] 
not  the  subject  of  any  criminal  proceeding,   either 


pending',  as  he  says,  'the  exercise  of  this  judicial 
power,   viz.  the  habeas  corpus.     Here  then,  by  his 
own  shewing,  he  has  exercised  a  power,  that,  in  a- 
vent,  can  only  belong  to  congress,  which  is  usur- 
pation— and  he  has  exercised  a  power  against  law, 
and  oppressively,  that  under  the  existing  circumstan- 
ces, not  even  congress  could  exercise;  which  is  Ty- 
ranny.    We  regret  that  our  limits  will  not  permit  a 
full  developement  of  the  case  of  the  much  injured 
Loualiier.     He  fell  a  victim,  we  have  no  doubt,  to 
the  stand  he  made  for  the  rights  of  his  fellow  citi- 
zens.    As  a  member  of  the  legislature,  he  opposed 
the  suspension   of  the  habeas  corpus  act,  believing 
that  no  necessity  existed  to  warrant  such  a  tremen- 
dous measure: — a  measure  which  annihilated  the  on- 
ly security  of  the  citizen,  and  placed  him,  alike  with 
the  soldier,  at  the  absolute  control  of  the  command- 
ing general.  This  was  his  first  offence;  but  when  gal- 
lant  Frenchmen,  who  had    fought   bravely  on  the 
lines,  in  the  battle  of  the  8th  January,  and  some  ef 
them  the  very  men  who  had  directed  the  artillery  oo 
that  memorable  day,  with  such  tremendous  effect  a- 
jiainst  the  enemy,  were  banished,  because  they  were 
anxious  to  return  to  their  families  after  the  war  was 
at  an  end,  be  drew  upon   himself  the  wrath  of  the 
general  by  urging  a  mild  remonstrance.     Could  we 
jpresent  tbo  case  of  these  proscribed  gentlemen  also,  it 
j  would  appear  to  be  one  of  great  vexation  and  hard- 
ship.    The   whole  population,  capable   of  bearing 
;arms,  had  turned  out  to  defend  the  city.  The  inhab- 
itants ofN.  Orleans,  and  those  persons  in  the  num- 
ber, composed  the  1st  and  2d  regiments.     After  the 
enemy  had  retreated,  it  seemed  reasonable  that  those 
!nho  had  families  in  the  city  would  have  been  permit- 
ted to  have  returned;  yet  it  is  an  extraordinary  fnci, 
that  Gen.  Jackson  ordered  the  1st  and  °2d  regiments 
to  remain  at  Villere's  farm,  and  marched  his  regu- 
lars and  foreign  militia  into  the  city.     Any  man  can 
appreciate  their  feelings.     Husbands,  brothers  and 
fathers  were  thus  compelled  to  leave  their  wives,  sis- 
ters and   daughters   to  the  doubtful    protection   of 
strangers,  while  they  were,  compelled   to  remain  in 
the  field,  by  severe  discipline,  the  propriety,  justice 
or  necessity  of  which  they  could  not  perceive.     But 
we  must  pass  en,  requesting  you,  fellow-citizens,  to 
put  this  question   to  yourselves  after  reviewing   the 
facts:     Suppose  General  Jackson  should  bo  elected 
President  and  commander- in  chief  of  the  army  and 
navy  and  of  the  militia  when  in  actual  service;  sup- 
pose he  should  by  means  of  the   military  spirit  that 
prevails,  get  the  nation   into   a  War:  Suppose  he 
should  declare  'martial  law,'  and  under  pretence  that 
Hie  members rsf  Congress  were  disaffected,  should  put 
them  under  arrest  and  'shop'  the  Judges — pray  what 
kind  of  government  would  you  have?     Observe  that 
this  is  not  an  impossible  case,  for  the  same  powers 
that  he  exercised  at  New  Orleans,  he  might  exercise 
at  Washington  city,  or  Washington,  Pennsylvania. 
In  examining  further  the  public  acts  of  general  Jack- 
son, we    shall  develope  the  same  usurpation  of  the 
powers  of  government-  -the  same  disregard  of  law, 
and  the  same  tyranny  orer  the  private  rights  of  in- 
dividuals.    During  the  year  1S17,  some  disturban- 
ces  existed   between  the  frontier  settlers  of  Georgia 
and  the   Indian  tribes.     It  would   be  useless  to  en- 
quire,  where  the  fault  lay,  were  it  not  that  we  think 


under  the  articles  of  war  or  his  own  'rules'— for  he  'he  public  mind  has  been  misled  on  the  subject,  and 
says,  (speaking  ofthe  judgeVan  unbending  sense  ofM»any  violent  proceedings  of  general  Jackson  have 
what  he  seemed  to  think  the  conduct,  which  his  esta-  [heen  tolerated  by  the  prejudices  of  the  people  against 
tion  require.!,  might  have  induced  him  to  order  thef  these  savages.  We  believe  they  have  been  "more 
Iteration  of  the  prisoner,'  &c.     This  was  the  foqn  :|sinned   against  than  sinning,"   and  that  if  the  truth 


was  known,   it  would  app'e'ap  that  there  never  was  a 
more  oppressed   race  of  men.     All  the  violations  of 
law— all  the  outrages  against   humanity  that  were 
committed  during  the  quasi  war,  have  been  justified 
Under  the  plea   of  'rddsalivn;'1  &n&  the  murders  of 
the  savages  have  been  placed  in  detail  before  the  na 
tion,  to   shock  the  feelings  and  inflame  the  passions 
of  the   people.     Let  us  look,  however,  at  the  other 
side,  and  if  we  take  the  testimony  of  one  of  our  own 
witnesses,   we  were  the  aggressors: — Governor  Mit- 
chell,  of  Georgia,  examined   before  a  com  rmttee  of 
the  senate.  9ijrs,*the  peace  of  the  frontier  has  been 
disturbed  by  acts  of  violence  committed  by  the  white* 
as   well  as  by  Indians.'     'These  acts  were  increased 
$*c.   by   a   set  of  lawless  and  abandoned  characters, 
(whites)    who    had  taken  refuge  on  both  siJes  of  St. 
Mary's  river,  and    living  principally  by  plunder.'     'I 
believe  the  first  outrage  committed  on  the  frontier  of 
Georgia,    after  the  treaty  of  Fort  Jackson,  was  by 
a   party  of  these   banditti,  who  plundered  a  party  of 
Seminole    Indians,  on  their  way  to  Georgia, for  the 
purpose  of  trade,  and  killing  one  of  them.     This  pro- 
dueed    retaliation  on  the  part   of  the  Indians,  and 
hence  the  killing  of  Mrs.  Ganetand  her  child!' — Af 
forwards  he  says,  'Gen.  Gaines,  arrived  with  a  de- 
tachment from  the  west — sent  for  the  chief  of  Fowl- 
town — aud   for   his  contumacy  in    not  immediately 
appearing    before   him,    the  town  was  attacked  and 
destroyed    by  the  troops  of  the  United  States.     This 
fact  was,  I  conceive,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  Se 
minole  war.' 

Seon  after  the   affair  at  Fowltown,  Lieut.  Scott 
and  his  party  were   attacked,  and  fell  victims  to  the 
rage  of  the  savages. — The   matter  now  hecp.rae  seri- 
ous, and   general   Jackson   was  ordered  to  take  the 
field. — He  was  informed  hy  the  secretary  at  war,  of 
the    force  at   his  disposal,  viz: — regulars  and  militia 
1800  men,  and  was  directed,  if  more  became  neces 
sary,  to  apply  to  the  governors  of  the  adjoining  states 
4*c.     Let    us  see   how  general  Jackson  obeyed  this 
order.     The  governor   of  Tennessee,  was    then  at 
Nashville,   within  ten  miles  of  the  'Hermitage,' yet, 
general   Jacksen,  without  deigning  to  consult  him, 
issued  his  call  upon  'the  patriotism  of  West  Tennes 
seans,'  and  in  this  way,  by  his  own  authority,  again 
raised  an  army  of  1000  mounted  gunmen.     He  ap 
pointed    officers,   to   command  this   corps,  himself, 
without  even  reporting  to  the  secretary  at  war,  their 
names.     The   alarming  precedent  is  before  the  peo 
pie  for  their  consideration      If  a  general  can  by  such 
means,  get  at  his  contr.oul  1000  men,  he  may  10,000 
or  100,000  and  when  once  in  the  field,  it  will  be  too 
late  to   enquire  into  his  authority.     A  court  martial, 
composed  of  officers,   thus   appointed   by   himself 
would  soon  convict  of 'mutiny'  any  refractory  stick- 
ler for  Caw  or  constitutional  right — as  the  miserable 
six  militia  men  fatally  experienced. — This  formida- 
ble foree,  altogether  amounting  to  3300  men,  against 
which,  according  to  colonel  Butler's  statement,  there 
were  never  'at  any  time  during  the  war  more  than 
5  or  600  enemies  embodied  at  any  one  place,'  it  may 
he  supposed  'looked  down  all  opposition.'     Accord 
inaly,  general  J.iekson  traversed  the  Creek  countn 
and    drove  the  miserable  rabble  of  Indians  anri  fagi 
tive   slaves  before  him.     The  war  was  finally  termi- 
nated with  the  loss  of  only  three  killed  on  our  side, 
and    two  of  those  at  the  Farancas.     Great  number.' 
of  cattle,  several  thousand  bushels  of  corn,  and  much 
other  plunder  was  obtained.  'Three  hundred  hous 
©s   were  consumed — leaving  a  tract  of  fertile  coun- 
try in  ruin.' 

On  the   25fh  March,  general  Jackson  had  issued 


his  order  to  cajpts  M'Keever,  commanding  the  naval 
forces  in    the  bay  of  Appalachicola,  to  'cruise  along 
the  coast  eastwardly,  and  capture  and  make  prison- 
ers of  all  and  every  person  or  description  of  persons, 
white,  red  or  black,  with  all  their  goods,  chattels,  and 
together  with  all  crafts,  vessels,  or  means  of  trans- 
portation, by   water,  $-c. — Against  what  particular 
jnation,  or  nations,  traversing  the,  high   seas,   this 
(sweeping  order  was   intended,   does  not  appear;  it 
'would  seem  from   the  general  terms  of  it,  to  be  a- 
Jgainst   the  whole   world.     If  captain  M'Keever.  had 
'happened    to  have  executed  it  against  the  c-itiz< 
iGreat  Britain,  it  would  have  been  a  fortunate  thing 
Ithat   he  held  the   United  States  commission,  or  he 
'might  have    stood  a  chance  for  piracy.     On  tho  6th 
of  April,  general  Jackson,  not  being  able  to  find  an 
enemy   within   our   territory,   entered  Florida,  and 
captured    the  fortress  of  St  Marks  from  the  Span- 
iards.    And   here   an  act  was  done  which  stains  the 
annals   of  our  country-     Two  Indian  Chiefs,  one  of 
them  a   prophet,  were 'enticed' (says  col.  Butler,) 
by  hanging  out  a  friendly  Hag,  on  board  one  of  the 
[vessels,  and  were  by  the  commanding  general  order- 
ed to  he  brought  on  shore  and  hung. — 'What,  hang 
an  Indian!!!'     Yes,  without  trial,  without  proof,  with- 
out   any  legal   examination-  -they   were  strung  up 
merely  for  the  sake  of  'an  example.'  —This  horrible 
act  of  perfidy  und  cruelty  was  done  upon  ncutralsoil. 
The  wretched  sufferers  were  not  taken  in  battle;  they 
were  rot  found  in  arms  against  us.  They  had  been  in 
lviied  to  corre  among  friends,    which  implied  by  the 
jlaus  of  war  and  the  laws  of  honour  a  guarantee  of 
safety.    -If  they  had  heen  taken  prisoners  of  war  in 
[battle,  and  their  lives  had  been  promised,  they  could 
'not  lawfully  have  been  put  to  death,  even  upon  the 
principle  of   retaliation.     In    this  case  an  assurance 
not  only  of  security  but    of  friendship  was  held  out  to 
them;  and  to   violate   that  pledge  was  perfidious  and 
contrary  to  the  laws   of  war.— But  we  shall  have  oc- 
casion to  notice  this  subject  when  we  come  to  speak 
of  the  case  of  Arburthnot  and  Ambrister.     The  first 
of  these  \infortunate  men   was  found  at  St  •  Marks, 
when   the    place    was  captured;  the  other  was  taken 
some   time  after  in  company  with  Cook,  who  was 
used    as   a  witness    against   them.— A  special  court 
martial    composed    of  IS  members,  (5  of  whom were 
general    Jackson's   officers,)     was    appointed   to   try 
them,  en    the  26th  April,  at  St.  Marks,  the  captured 
post,  within   the    territory   of  Spain.     We  do   not 
mean    to   discuss   the  question  of  their  guilt  or  inno- 
jcence,  though  from  a  careful  examination  of  the  evi- 
dence, we  are  inclined  to  think  that  public  feeling  has 
'sanctioned  their  condemnation,  more  than  justice  or 
jf  he  rules  of  law.     Arburthnot   ivas  found  guilty,  and 
Isentenced   to    be   hung.     Ambrister  was  also  found 
[guilty  and  sentenced  to  be  shot,  but  immediately,  the 
court  reconsidered    the  case,  and  finally  sentenced 
him  to  receive  50  stripes  and  to  be"  confined  with  a 
ball  and  chain.  $c.  for  19,  months.     Two  questions 
of  great  importance  are  presented,  which  the  people 
are  now  to  decide.     1st.  Were  those  persons  at  all 
amenable  to  a  military  tribunal?     2nd.  If  they  were, 
have  they  been  legally  executed?     On  the  first  point 
let  it  be  observed  that  they  were  British  subjects,  and 
there  was  no  proof  that  ever  they  were  upon  our  soil. 
Arhuthnot  was  condemned  for  being  a  spy,  but  up- 
on what  principle  we  do  not  see.     He  merely  de- 
railed in  a  letter  to  his  son,  and  it  would  seem  for  his    / 
I  idvice  and  direction  only,  information,  which   the  , 


'    T 


ommai.dant  of  St.  Marks  had  received,  of  General, 
ackson's    advance  and  hi?  force.     Hew  this  could 
make,  him  a  spy,  we  cannot  conceive.     He  was  als; 


J 


iO 


charged  with  encouraging  the  Indians  to  hostilities. 
and  with  furnishing  theni  ammunition,  &.c.  Now  ad- 
mitting all  this  to  be  true,we  do  notsee  how  he  could 
be  held  criminally  responsible  by  the  laws  of  war. 
A  neutral  enemy  may  join  a  belligerent,  and  even 
•fight;  this  is  doing  more  than  encouraging  by  influ- 
ence or  counsel.  If  taken,  he  is  to  be  considered  a 
prisoner  of  war  and  treated  according!}'.  Such  was 
the  case  of  Ambrister.  He  was  charged  with  bear- 
ing arms  against  is;  and  if  he  did  do  so.  the  gallant 
Lafayette  and  others  had  left  their  own  country  to 
fight  on  our  side,  at  a  time  too  when  Great  Britain 
denounced  our  people  as  rebels.  The  Indians  are 
not  subject  to  our  municipal  law:  they  are  indepen- 
dent; with  the  right  of  peace  and  war.  A  neutral 
joining  them  does  not  expose  himself  to  the  penal- 
alties  of  an  outlaw  or  a  pirate,  as  generalJackson  as- 
serts in  his  letter  to  the  Secretary  at  War. 

The  only  ground  then  on  which  the  execution  of 
those  men  could  be  at  all  sustained,  is  that  which  the 
friends  of  general  Jackson  were  compelled  to  take  in 
Congress:  the  principle  of  retaliation  against  a  sav- 
age enemy,  which  allows  no  quarters.    This  was  not 
suggested  in  the  case  presented  to  the  court,  nor  in-' 
deed  was  it  a  subject  of  investigation  before  any  tri- 
bunal, it  is  a  sovereign  act  of  summary  infliction 
which  a  general  may  exercise  upon  his  own  respon- 
sibility. Neither  does  gen.  Jackson  in  the  order  for 
their  execution  put  it  upon  that  footing;;   nor  in    his 
letter  to  the  secretary  of  war  on  the.  5th  'May, in  which 
he  says  they  were  tried,  "legally  convicted,"  and  "just-: 
ly  punished;"  having  reference  of  course  to  the  pro-j 
ceedings  of  the  court  and  the  charges  there  exhibited. 
If  he  had  ordered  them  without  any  trial,  upon  the 
alleged  facts  of  their  being  adherents  in  arms  of  the 
enemy,  to  be  shot,  upon  the  principle  of  retaliation, 
then  it  might  be  proper  to  enquire,    1st.  Whether 
they  were  subject,  by  the  laws  of  war,  to  that  sum- 
mary infliction?  and  2d.  If  they  were,  whether  gen- 
eral Jackson  had  power  to  apply  it?     We  admit  that 
retaliation  may  sometimes  be  used,  in  order  to  emu 
pel  an  enemy  to  regard  the  laws  of  war.     It  is  a  pre- 
ventive remedy,  against  barbarous  and  unlawful  has 
tility;  but  it  can  only  be  allowed  in  a  state  of  actual 
war.     As  the  object  of  it  is  merely  to  deter  the  ene- 
my from  acts  of  cruelty,  it  is  obvious    that   the   mo 
went  the  contest  in  at  an  end,  the   right  of  retaliation 
ceases.     Punishments. then  supervenes,  when  crimes 
have  been  committed,  which  can  only  be  inflicted  by 
the  tribunals  of  the  country.      By    the  common  law 
of  England  as  laid  down  by  Sir  Edward  Coke,  (3d 
Inst:  52,)  "if  a  lieutenant,  or  other  that  hath  com- 
mission of  martial  authority,  doth  in  time  of  pence, 
hang,  or  otherwise   execute   anv  man  by  colour  of 
martial  law,  this  is  murder:'     The  5th  article  of  the 
amendments  to  the  constitution, prohibits  capital  pun 
ishment,  unless  on  indictment,  except   "in    time  of 
tear  or  public  danger:''  and  the  65th  article  of  "rules, 
4'c."  requires  the  proceedings  in  any  case  extending 
to  loss  of  life,  in  time  of  peace,  to  be   laid  before  the 
president,  &c.     Now  let  us   see  how  these  author- 
ities apply.     On  the  20th  April,  ISIS,  the  very  day 
that  Arburthnot  was  put  upon  his  trial,  general  .lack-! 
son  wrote  to  the  secretary  at  war  in  these  words:-— 
"The  Indian  forces  have  been  divided  and  scatter- 
ed; cut  off  from  all  communication  with  those  un- 
principled agents  of  foreign  nations,  who  have  delud-l 
ed  them  to  their  ruin,  they  have,  not   the  power,  if 
the  will  remain,  of  again  annoying;  our  frontier." 

Nothing  occurred  to  change  this  state,  of  things' 
before  their  execution.  There  was  then  a  state  ofj 
peace;  the  barbarous  hostilities,  which  alone  could; 


justify  retaliation,  had  ceased,  and  the  right  to  in- 
flict death,  under  that  plea,  ceased  also.  We  adopt 
the  language  of  an  eminent  writer  on  the  law  of  na- 
tions: "The  license  of  war  authorises  no  acts  of  hos- 
tility but  what  are  necessary  and  conducive  to  the 
end  and  object  of  the  war.  Gratuitous  barbarity  bor- 
rows no  excuse  from  this  plea.  The  danger  of  in- 
justice by  hastily  punishing:  the  tumult  and  flame  of 
war  little  agrees  with  the  proceedings  of  pure  and 
sound  justice:  more  quiet  times  are  to  be  waited  for. 
It  is  more  wise  and  safe  therefore  for  a  general  to 
secure  his  prisoners,  till  having  restorea  tranquility, 
he  can  havelhem  tried  according  to  the  laics."  Had 
General  JacKfcon  retained  these  wretched  men  in  cus- 
tody, until  their  ease  was  known  to  the  President,  or 
had  he  even  reported  the  proceedings  of  the  court 
to  him,  they  never  would,  we  believe,  have  been  ex- 
ecuted. He  ought  to  have  done  so  for  another  rea- 
son— We  deny  that  in  any  aspect  of  the  case,  he 
had  power  to  put  prisoners  to  death  upon  the  plea 
of  retaliation.  It  is  a  sovereign  act,  which  no  subor- 
dinate command  can  do.  In  this  position  we  are  sus- 
tained, not  only  by  the  writers  on  the  laws  of  na- 
tions, but  also  by  the  opinion  of  respectable  men  in 
our  own  country.  We  refer  to  the  court  of  enqui- 
ry, with  respect  to  the  burning  of  Dover,  in  Canada, 
of  which  General  Scott  was  president;  in  which  pro- 
ceeding it  is  said,  "acts  of  retaliation  on  the  part  of 
a  nation  proud  of  its  rights,  and  conscious  of  the 
power  of  enforcing  them,  should  be  reluctantly  re- 
sorted to,  and  only  by  instructions  from  the  highest 
authority."  Where,  we  would  ask,  were  general 
Jackson's  "instructions?"  But  can  the  execution  of 
these  men  be  justified  upon  any  principle  of  law, 
reason  or  humanity?  As  it  respects  Ambrister,  we 
assert  that  it  cannot.  The  order  for  their  execution 
was  in  these  words* "Brevet Major  C.  W.  Fanning, 
&c.  will  have  between  the  hours  of  S  and  9  A.M.,  A. 
Arburthnot  suspended  by  the  neck  with  a  rope  until 
lie  i*  dead,  and   Robert   C.  Ambrister  to  be  shot  to 

death,   AGREE  \FT.Y  TO  THE  SENTENCE  OF  THE  COURT  " 

Now  we  have  seen  that  the  first  opinion  of  the  court, 
as  to  the  sentence  fit  Ambrister,  was  rescinded,  and 
the  last  determination  was  the  only  sentence  that 
•general  Jackson  could  notice;  it  was  the  only  sentence 
of  the  cnuri  Yet  he  undertakes  to  set  that  aside, 
and  declare  operative,  one  which  the  court  itself  an- 
nulled, and  which  was  as  completely  void  as  if  it  had 
never  been  agitated,  The  order  for  execution  then 
rests  upon  no  foundation.  If  general  Jackson  had 
disapproved  of  the  sentence  of  the  court,  he  mighthave 
reversed  the  whole  proceeding;  and  began  de  novo, 
as  he  did  in  the.  case  of  Louallier;  but  he  professes 
to  conform  to  it  and  yet  goes  directly  contrary.  The 
court  determined  that  Ambrister  should  no!  beshot; 
general  Jackson  orders  him  to  be  shot,  and  says  it  is 
■  agreeably  to  Use  sentence  "  Wh  it  a  mockery!!— But 
it  is  useless  to  take  up  time  on  this  point.  The  com- 
mittee of  the  senate  reported  a  resolution  disapprov- 
ing of  the  execution  of  both  these  men.  Some  of  the 
members  who  dissented,  endeavoured  to  vindicate 
the  general  in  a  Ions;  defence;  which  they  offered  as 
a  substitute.  TJ»  y  admitted,  however,  that  the  ex- 
ecution of  Ambrister  was  wrong,  but  justified  him  on 
the  ground  (which  he  never  took  himself)  that  he 
might  have  put  him  to  death,  in  "retaliation,"  with- 
out the  interference  of  a  court  at  all.  Whether  there 
is  not  more  ingenuity,  than  justice  or  candour  in 
this,  we  leave  jou  to  decide. 

We  shall  not  take  up  your  time  in  examining  the 
pretences  under  which  he  forcibly  seized  Florida,  a 
neutral  country,  in  opposition  to  the  express,  orders 


\ 


i  i 


ii 
ci 
lo 
ii 


of  the  Secretary  of  war.  Our  government  immedi- 
ately restored  the  captured  places,  and  thus  manifes- 
ted an  unequivocal  disavowal  of  the  act.  The  his- 
tory of  the  transaction,  however,  will  shew  that  there 
was  not  the  shadow  of  necessity  for  this  violent  at- 
tack upon  a  friendly  power.  The  facts,  which  gen- 
eral Jackson  alleged,  with  respect  to  the  Indians, 
were  denied  by  the  governor  of  Pensacola,  and  no 
proof  has  been  offered  to  sustain  them.  It  seems 
quite  as  probable  that  the  general  was  influenced 
more  by  a  bravado  of  Don  Jose  Mas.,:,  ...jan  by  a  re 
gard  to  the  peace  and  honor  of  his  own  country 
Fortunately  (he  prompt  reparation,  offered  by  our 
president,  was  accepted,  and  thus  the  nation  was 
saved  from  a  war  with  Europe,  into  which  we  might 
have  been  involved,  by  this  unauthorised  invasion  of 
neutral  territory  and  neutral  rights. — The  restora 
tionofthe  country  was  much  against  the  wish  of 
general  Jackson.  In  a  letter  dated  August  10, 1818, 
to  the  secretary  at  war,  he  urges  the  necessity  of 
holding  the  Floridas,  and  offers  to  pledge  his  life 
"upon  defending  the  country  from  St.  Mary's  to  the 
Barrataire,  against  all  the  machinations  and  attacks  oj 
the  holy  alliance,  and  combined  Europe."  If  this  sin 
gle  expression  does  not  furnish  evidence  of  what  we 
might  expect  from  a  "military  president,"  we  do  not 
know  what  will. — But  there  are  some  facts  connect 
ed  with  the  invasion  of  Florida  and  the  capture  of 
Pensacola,  which  may  possibly  throw  some  light  up- 
on the  motives  of  the  general's  conduct. — It  was  in 
evidence,  before  the  committee  of  the  senate,  that  in 
the  fall  of  1817,  several  gentlemen  of  Nashville,  (a- 
mong  whom  were  John  Donnelson,  the  nephew  of 
the  general,  and  John  H.  Eaton,  his  biographer,  and 
the  same  person  who  figures  in  a  letter  lately  pub- 
lished,) formed  a  company,  to  speculate  in  lots  and 
lands  at  Pensacola.  Mr.  Donnelson  a3  their  agent, 
went  on,  with  authority  to  make  purchases  to  an  a 
mount  not  exceeding  16,000  dollais;  and  succeeded 
to  his  wishes. — Mr.  Eaton,  in  his  testimony,  says, 
that  his  "inducement  to  make  this  adventure,  was, 
that  he  believed  the  country  would  ultimately  belong 
to  the  United  States." — It  is  a  singular  coincidence, 
considering  the  intimate  relation  subsisting  between 
the  parties,  that  the  speculation  is  hardly  secured  by 
deed,  &c.  until  general  Jackson  advances  with  an  A- 
merican  army — invades  the  country — seizes  the 
forts — occupies  Pensacola — and  then  endeavours, 
by  influence  and  arguments,  to  induce  his  govern 
inent  to  retain  the  conquest,  at  the  expense  of  jus 
tice,  right  and  tranquility. 

We  will  not  say,  that  the  General  was  concerned  in 
this  adventure;  but  the  circumstances  are  quite  as 
strong,  to  favour  that  presumption,  as  those  relied 
upon  to  support  the  famed  charge  of  bribery,  bar 
gain,  &.c.  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much  and  so  of- 
ten.— Let  us  now  proceed  to  examine  some  of  tiie 
acts  of  general  Jackson  as  a  civil  magistrate  and  see 
whether  the  same  overbearing  violence  of  temper — 
the  same  self  willed,  despotic  exercise  of  povver,have 
not  been  manifested  in  his  public  conduct. — Upon 
the  cession  of  Florida  to  the  United  Stales,  general 
Jackson  was  appointed  governor  of  that  territory: — 
His  own  view  of  the  arbitrary  authority  vested  in 
him,  appears  from  his  letter  to  capt.  Bel!,  dated  Au- 
gust IS,  1821,  in  which  he  says,  "I  despatched  an 
express,  &c.  to  you  with  sundry  ordinances,  which  I 
found  it  necessary  to  adopt  for  the  better  organiza- 
tion of  the  Floridas.'1 — "The  constitution  of  Spain, 
providing  for  the  trial  by  jury  in  criminal  cases,  al- 
though never  extended  to  the  colonies,  because  the 
treaty  ceding  the  Floridas  was  concluded   before  the 


',  tj» 


constitution  was  adopted,  &c.  in  Spain." — Here  is  a 
most  extraordinary  declaration  from  the  republican 
governor  of  a  ceded  territory,  which,  it  was  intend- 
ed, might  hereafter  become  a  member  of  our  union. 
— The  trial  by  jury,  the  freeman's  dearest  right,  is 
not  to  be  allowed,  because  the  country  was  ceded,  be- 
fore Spaniards  had  obtained  that  privilege  under 
their  new  constitution;  and  the  rights'of  the  people 
were  to  be  determined  and  regulated  by  the  "ordi- 
nances" of  the  governor  that  is,  by  the  simple  decla- 
ration of  his  will — A  happy  change  truly!!  In  our 
further  enquiry  however,  we  will  find  that  the  gov- 
ernor acted  under  this  impression.  In  a  former  let- 
ter to  capt.  Bell,  he  had  said  "the  Spanish  laws  and 
usages  are  in  force."  His  ordinances  were  to  declare 
what  the  Spanish  laws  were,  and  afterwards  in  the 
letter  referred  to,  he  adds,  "The  judge  (appoint- 
ed by  the  president,)  can  exercise  no  other  power, 
(except  so  far  as  relates  to  carrying  into  effect  the* 
acts  extended  over  the  Floridas,)  unless  specially 
given  him  by  the*president.  Such  instructions  have 
not  been  given,  and  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
the  presjdent  could  give  THEM.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  person  exercising  the  power  of  tha 
governor  of  East  Florida,  can  exercise  all  the 
powers  exercised  under  the  king  op  Spain,  at  the 
time  the  country  was  ceded." — This  power  we  know 
was  arbitrary  and  despotic.  Spain  had  not  reform- 
ed her  constitution  at  the  time,  and  hence,  as  the 
general  argues,  the  people  of  Florida  could  not  have 
the  benefit  of  the  trial  by  jury  in  criminal  cases. — 
This  assumption  of  regal  prerogative  we  leave  for  the 
consideration  of  those  who  admire  the  republican 
principles  of  general  Jackson. — Let  us  proceed  to 
his  practical  illustration  of  his  powers.  By  the  trea- 
ty of  cessions,  all  the  archives  and  documents,  re- 
lating to  the  "property  or  sovereignty  of  the  country" 
were  to  be  given  up.  The  general  undertook  to  in- 
terpret this,  as  including  papers  relative  to  private 
property;  and  a  complaint  having  been  made  that 
some  such  were  in  the  possession  of  the  late  Spanish 
governor, Callava,  an  order  was  issued  that  he  should 
deliver  them  forthwith. — They  were  refused,  and  in- 
stead ofsending  a  civil  officer  with  process,  gen.  Jack- 
son issued  to  col.  Brooke  the.  following  military  re- 
quisition: "You  will  furnish  an  officer,  sergeant,cor- 
poral,  and  twenty  men,  and  direct  the  officer  to  call 
on  me  by  half  past  8  o'clock  for  orders.  They  will 
have  their  arms  and  accoutrements  complete,  with 
twelve  rounds  of  ammunition." — This  was  accord- 
ingly done,  and  lieutenant  Mountz,  "officer  of  the 
guards,"  was  directed  to  take  colonel  Callava  into 
custody,  &c. — They  found  him  at  his  house,  on  the 
bed,  and  he  complained  of  being  too  ill  to  go  with 
them;  but,  as  Messrs.  Butler  and  Bronaugh  "report- 
led"  to  his  excellency,  "he  seemed  to  act  without 
'much  difficulty  when  the  guard  was  ordered  to 
prime  and  load." — The  defenceless  dignitary  was 
jlhus  dragged  by  military  force,  before  governor 
! Jackson,  and  finally  committed  to  prison:  in  the 
|mean  time  his  hou*e  was  entered  by  order,  boxes 
Were  broken  open,  and  papers  taken  out. — We  leave 
you,  fellow  citizens,  who  have  been  accustomed  to 
the  mild  execution  of  the  laws,  by  civil  officers  ivith- 
out  arms,  to  make  your  own  reflections  upon  these 
acts.  But  we  have  not  given  you  the  whole  case. 
Judge  Fromentin,  who  had  been  commissioned  by 
the  president,  judicial  officer  of  the  territory,  was  ap- 
plied to,  by  the  friends  of  col.  Callava,  for  a  habeas 
corpus.  Supposing  that  the  country  ceded  to  the 
United  States,  should  share,  in  some  degree,  the  be 
nignityofa  free  government,  he  allowed  the  w 


A 


12 


pi  Jackson  when  informed  of  it,  directed  captain  'tyranny ,  can  be  chosen  to  preside  over  the  destinies 
ager  to  inform  Mr.  Fromentin  that  the  prisoners  jof  the  only  free  people  on  the  globe':'  But  we  know, 
ouldbe  kept  confined  until  released  by  fas  orders;  'many  will  say  that  the  principles  of  generalJackson 
and  at  the  same  time  issued  his  precept  to  bring  the  are  too  pure,  and  bis  patriotism  too  elevated,  to  id- 
judge  before  him,  to  answer  for  having  "attempted  low  him  to  entertain  designs  unfavorable  to  the  M- 
to  interfere"  with  his  authority.  Overwhelmed  by  jberties  of  his  country.  To  this  we  will  reply,  that 
arbitrary  power— brow-beaten  and  insulted,  the  jwe  do  not  charge  him  with  any  deliberate  intention  of 
judge  was  compelled  to  yield  his  official  dignity  and  mischief:  We  only  urge  the  dangerous  tendency  of 
his  personal  independence.— To  shew  the  manner  in  his  mind  and  temper,  and  for  that  reason  we  hope 
which  he  was  treated  we  shall  copy  from  a  letter  of  ;he  will  never  be  placed  in  a  situation  to  test  his 
p-.o  it.  Sd?  1821,  a  principles   or  tempt  his  patriotism.— We  believe  he 

few   .  :  ■■  of  of  abuse  that  were  throws  'possesses  good    feeling  »wl  love  of  country.— So  at 

upon  him:  "mt/msh,iientr— •■indignation  and  con-  ;one  time,  perhaps,  did  Robespierre:— His  character 
tempt" — "you  were  capable  of  stating  aicUfui  and  de-  Iwas  unexceptionable — his  conduct  irreproachable — 
liberate  falsehood"— "yon  have  the  hardihood  to  deny"  and  so  ardent  was  his  zeal  for  liberty  that  he  devo- 
— "you  are  regardless  of  truth"— "you  have  stated  an  ted  his  time  and  talents  to  publish  a  paper  called 
other  deliberate  falsehood"— "recollect  the  admonition  I\\"The  defender  of  the  eonslitidion  "—Yei  he  was  led 
gave"— "you  will  be  treated  and  punished  as  you  de-\\on  by  circumstances,  till  he  became  a  bloody  tyrant. 


serve.,J  Now  all  this  was  for  having  "dared,"  as  the| 
general  says,  to  issue  a  habeas  corpus. — But  to  cap  the: 
climax  of  tyranny,  the  Spanish  officers,  (resident  at  f 
Pensacola  for  many  years,  and  owning  large  proper- 
ty), were  ordered  by  proclamation,  dated  29th  Sep- 
tember, to  leave  the  country  in  four  days.  Their  of- 
fence was  the  publication  in  a  newspaper,  of  a  para- 
i  graph,  questioning  the  accuracy  ot  the  interpreters 
\  who  had  assisted  at  the  examination  of  col.  Callava. 
|Two  of  the  gentlemen  ventured  to  return,  in  some 
short  time,  to  look  after  their  affairs,  and  in  pursu- 
ance  of  the  governor's  order,  were  arrested  and  con- 
fined in  prison.  Fortunately  for  them,  (as  no  habeas 
corpus  could  bring  relief,)  general  Jackson  resigned, 
and  the  case  having  been  communicated  to  the  pre- 
sident, he,  at  once  directed,  their  discharge,  after  a  con- 
finement of  more  than  three  months  and  a  half.  But, 
fellow  citizens,  it  would  be  impossible,   in  any  con 


We  disclaim  any  comparison,  however.  Our  object 
is  merely  to  shew  the  possibility,  that  men  may  he 
carried  away,  by  their  passions,  their  interests  or 
their  mistaken  notions  of  right,  to  do  acts,  at  which 
they  would  once  have  revolted. — Marcus  Manlius, 
by  his  personal  prowess,  saved  the  capital  at  Rome. 
He  was  the  idol  of  the  people  and  their  advocate.  He 
proposed  the  abolition  of  consulates  and  dictator- 
ships, and  a  perfect  equality  of  rights.  Yet  this  same 
Manlius,  at  length  attempted  to  usurp  the.  sovereign 
power;  was  convicted  and  thrown  from  the  Tarpeian 
rock.  But  take  another  instance,  upon  better  au- 
thority, to  which  you  can  all  advert.  When  the  pro- 
phet told  Hazael  of  the  evil  he  would  do  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel— that  he  would  set  on  fire  their  strong 
holds,  and  slay  their  young  men  "ith  the  sword,  *-.c. 
ihis  reply  Was,  "what!  is  thy  servant  a  dog,  that  he 
should  do  this  great  ikuig?"  —  and  yet  in  a  very  short 


vecient  limits,  to  lay   before  you  in  the   briefest  de-time  he  murdered  Ids  king  and  committed  all  the  a 
tail,  all  the  exceptionable  incidents  in  the  public  life  trocities  that  had  been  predicted, 
of  gen.  Jackson.  They  all  go  to  shew  that  in  every  si  |l     Our  third  personal    objection  to  general  Jackson 

ifor  the  presidency,  is  his   ivant  «J  qualifications.     On 
this  point  we  might  rely  upon  negative  proof,  viz:  the 
non-existence    of  any  evidence    of  his    talents  and 
knowledge  as  a  civilian  and  statesman;  but  we  have 
abundant  positive  testimony  to    adduce — We  need 
only    refer  again  to  his  official  letters,  orders,  &c.  to 
shew  thai  he  is  by  no  means  versed  in  constitutional 
and  municipal  law  or  the  law  of  nations.     The  egre- 
gious blunders  he  has  committed  in  legal  interpreta- 
tion, and   in    the  execution  of  his  legitimate  powers, 
evince   sijcb   a  want  of  judgmenl  and  knowledge  as 
must    render  it    unsafe    to  place  him  at  the- head  of 
■the  government.     His   attempt  to  bring  the- inhabit- 
ants of  New   Orleans  under  the  description  of  *;/>.'' -s 
if  seen  in  the    streets  after  9  o'clock  at  night:     His 
order    to     capt.    M'Kecver.  already    noticed:      His 
opinion    that   Arburthnot  and  Arahrister  might  be 
executed  as  "outlaws    and  pirates:"     His  construc- 
tion  of  the    authority   vested  in  him  as  governor  of 
Florida:     His  declaration  that   the  -Hartford  con- 
vention   men"    might  have  been  executed  under  the 
"second  ser'ion,"   although     citizens   of  the    United 
^— and  innumerable   other   instances,  all  prove 
not  only  his   tyrannical,  dangerous  disposition,  but, 
also,  his    profound    ignorance,— How   could  such  a 
man  direct   the   internal   economy  and  foreign  rela- 
tions  of  a   country  like  ours?     It  is  impossible  he 
could    get   along,  without  involving  the  nation  in  a 
war,  and    then  declaring  "martial  tow."— With  the 


tuation  where  he  has  been  entrusted  with  power,  he 
ha9  made  his  own  will  the   rule  of  his  actions. — He 
suspended  or  rather  protracted  the  executive  and 
legislative  functions  of  Louisiana:      He   surrounded 
the  hall  of  the  assembly,  with  troops  and   excluded 
the  members:     He  arrested  the   governor,  dragged 
him  by  a  military  guard  through  the  streets    and  e- 
ven  threatened  to  hang  him  if  he  again   displeased 
him:     He  prohibited  the  governor  of  Georgia   from 
exercising  his  constitutional  command  over  the  mili- 
tia of  his  own   state:     He  usurped  the  absolute  con- 
trol of  the  armies  under  him,  in  time  of  peace,  by  di- 
recting his  officers  to  receive  no  orders  from  the  war 
(department,  unless  they  came  through  him:     He  as- 
sumed the  prerogative  of  making  war,  which  Con- 
gress alone  can  do  by  the  constitution:     1  ie  abroga- 
ted  and  set  at  naught  the  established  laws  of  na- 
tions, and  instituted  a  new  code  of  his  own.  ex  re  ac- 
ta, devised  often  in  passion  and  vengeance — and  ex 
ecuted  in  blood:      He   violated  the    la  as,  and   disre 
garded  the  articles  of  war:     And  finally,  (though  not 
all)  he  attempted  to  control  the    freedom   of  debate 
by  threatening  to  cut  otT  the  ears  of  our  senator! 
who  were  investigating   his  conduct  in  the  Seminole 
war,  and  it  is  said  was  actually  prevented   by   the 
gallant  Decatur,  from  entering  the  senate  chamber, 
to  make  an  assault  upon  a  member. 

We  ask    now  your  candid   consideration   of  the 
facts  we  have   disclosed,  and  submit  to  your  deci 


sion  whether  we  have  not  fully  sustained  our  second,  aid  of  military  courts,   then.it   is  possible  he  might 

personal  objection    to   general  Jackson.- Can  it  be'  manage  to   keep  us  in  due  submission,—  J  nese  oh- 

-sible  that  a  man   whose  whole  course  of  public    i.  'tin-  fe-llow:  citizens,   sustained  as  tbey  are  by  nv 

b£.-  «  it  has  been  marked  by  violence,  usurpation  and|freffagable   proof,  we  think  ought  to  put  the  election 

pea,  '  \  ^ 


lrf 


of  general  Jackson  out  ol  the  question.  But  there  ;tion  to  matters  of  vital  importance,  remain  yet  i& 
are  other  considerations  which  are  too  important  to  ,ihe  dark. — Bst  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  antici- 
Pennsylvania,  and  to  our  western  section  of  it  par  pating  his  eourse.  It  is  a  law  in  mechanical  philo- 
ticulariy,  to  be  omitted — Every  farmer  has  felt  and  sophy,  that  a  body  must  always  move  precisely  it; 
does  feel,  that  unless  some  system  is  adopted  topro-j  the  line  of  direction  of  the  impinging  force.  This 
tect  the  productions  of  our  own  country  against  ajlis  equaliy  true  in  politics.  A  man  who  has  been 
ruinous  competition  from  abroad,  industry  must  bel  elevated  to  office  in  the  strife  of  parties,  will  always 
paralyzed  and  prosperity  decline.  Access  to  the  endeavour  to  support  the  views  and  advance  the  in- 
markets  of  the  seaboard  also,  by  roads  and  canals,  terests  of  those  who  have  elected  him.— General 
constructed  on  a  national  plan  and  with  the  means  Jackson,  if  successful  at  all,  will  be  so  through  the 
of  the  general  government,  has  become  ^dispensable,  votes   of  the  South;  and  that  he  will  go  with  them  in 


to  the  inhabitants   of  the  interior. — These  objects 
combined,  form    what  is  called  the  "American  Sys 
tern;"  and  have  for  a  longtime  engaged  the  patriot- 
ic zeal  and  the  best  exertions  of  the  friends  of  the  grounds  of  our  opposition  to  General  Jackson, 
country. — Against  them,  the  planters  of  the  southern  [think  they  are  conclusive  against  his  election. 


all  great  measures  of  policy,  is  clear  upon  every  prin- 
ciple of  human  nature. 

We   have  then  fellow  citizens,  laid  before  you  the 

We 
Butl 


states  are  arrayed  in  formidable  force.  In  proof  of  are  there  any  well  founded  objections  to  the  presentl 
this,  we  need  only  refer  to  the  known  interests  and  |  incumbent.  Mr.  Adams?  In  a  brief  examination  or, 
feelings  of  the  people  in  that  section  of  the  union;  toj  this  question,  we  shall  pursue  the  topics  suggested  in 
the  proceedings  cf  their  public  meetings;  to  the  de-|  an  address,  lately  published  by  a  committee  of  the 
claration  of  their  public  men;  to  their  memorial  to;  friends  of  general  Jackson. — With  respect  to  the 
congress,  deprecating  the  measures  of  which  we  so  qualifications  of  Mr.  Adams,  there  is  no  dispute:  "his 
much  approve,  and  to  the  vote  of  the  members  on  talents,  industry,  and  habits  of  business;  his  general 
the  woollens  bill  of  the  last  session,  by  which  it  will  ^acquaintance  with  all  the  minutise  and  routine  of 
appear  that  the  south  generally  opposed  its  passage.  J  the  departments  of  state  and  diplomatic  concerns, 
But,  how,  it  will  be  asked,  does  this  affect  the  presi-  are  freely  admitted,  while  his  interests  are  ac- 
dential  question?  The  connection  of  the  two  sub-j  knowledged  to  be  American."  We  wish  those 
je.cts  is  fuily  illustrated  by  examining  the  votes  or,  i  gentlemen  had  been  equally  candid,  or  we  would  ra- 
the bill  we  have  referred  to  above.  It  will  be  seen  ther  say  better  informed,  with  respect  to  the  private 
that  the  members  from  the  states  friendly  to  the  pre-|ldeportment  and  manners  of  Mr.  Adams.  They 
sent  administration  voted  in  favour  of  the  bill,  and:  ought  not  to  have  imposed  upon  the  people  the  re- 
marks which  follow  these  we  have  quoted. 


So  far 
from  being  truly  descriptive,  they  have  not  the 
slightest  aspect  of  the  most  unostentatious,  plain, 
modest,  unassuming  man  in  the  nation. — We  do 
not  think  it  worth  while,  however,  to  notice  such 
"ad  captandum1'  portraiture.  The  republican  sim- 
plicity of  Mr  Adams  is  as  remarkable  as  the  splen- 


those  from  the  states  friendly  to  Jackson,  generally 
against  the  bill:  Thus,  the  whole  representation 
from  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Rhode  Is 
land,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut  ;<nd  Ohio,  in 
which  states  Mr.  Adams,  it  is  admitted,  has  the  ma 
jority,  voted  for  the  bill,  except  Mr.  Thompson,  a 
partizan  of  gen.  Jackson  from  Ohio,  Mr.  Taunton 
from  Massachusetts,  and  four  others  from  Maine,  all1  dor  of  his  talents. 

t-awn    to   be  in  favour  of  the  general.— From  Nortli' )     We  are  only  sorry  that   gentlemen  whom  we  re- 
and   South    Carolina,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Virginia  j  sped,  should  descend  to  such  an  artifice.    The  insi- 
Mississippi,   and   Alah 
son,  the  members  vo 

except  i»ir.  Johnson,  ..hu  jc|mc»cui3  <i  uisuu         run  assaii  oyjacis,  ine  piwiic,  or  even  pr 
Virginia  friendly  to  the  administration.— New  York,  (ter  of  Mr.  Adams.     VVe  agree  that  both  shall  be  o- 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Missouii.  pen  to  investigation.     But" to  support  Gen.  Jackson 
which  we  think,  will  eventually  support  Mr.  Adams,   by  the  passions  of  the  people,  and  to  run  down   Mr. 
gave  large  majorities  in  favor  of  the  bill;  indeed  the  Adams  by  appealing  to  their  prejudices,does  not  corn- 
only  opposition  was  from  the  general's  friends.— For  port  either  with  candor,  justice,  or  the  public  inter- 
instance,  in  Pennsylvania,  Messrs.  Ingham,  Kroner,  est.     Let  only  truth  appear,   and  we  are  content.— 
Buchanan,  Kittera,   Wurts,  Stevenson,  and  Adams.  We  shall  proceed  to  notice  the  only  ground  ofobjec- 
the  on!;,    members   who   voted  against  the  bill,  arej'tion  to  Mf.  Adams  that -the  committee  hare  set  forth, 
known    to  be   devoted  Jackson   men. — The   result  it  is  said  to  he  his  "acceptance  of  the  presidency  in 
Kives— For  the   bill,    106,  of  whom  90  were  friends  [direct  opposition  to  the  expressed  will  of  the  people 
of  the  administration,— 12  for  Jackson,  and  4  doubt- jjof  the  United  States."     This  is  strong  assertion;  and 
fa];    against  the  bill,  95,  of  whom  79  were  for  Jack  [if  supported  bj  proof  we  should  abandon  our  candi- 
son— 12  for  the  administration,  and  4  doubtful.— ,  date  to  his  fate.     But    it  is  not  true;  and   we    shall 
This  exhibition  can  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  views  of  shew  that  .Mr.   Adams  not  only  is  the  constitutional 
the  respective  parties,on  the  great  question  of  policy,  president,  but  that  he  had  also  a  greater  popular  vote 
That  the   "American  System"  will  eventually  form  than  any  of  his  competitors.  We  know  that  the  pub- 
the  point   of  difference,  we   are  fully  convinced.— j  lie  mind  has  been  misled  on  this   subject;    assump- 
Many  of  the  general's  friends  in  this  state  are  unwil    tions  have  been  held  up  as  facts,  and  the  wildest  no- 
ling,  we  know,  to  believe  that  he  is  opposed  to  these  tions  have  been  represented  as  legitimate,  theories- 
great  measures,   upon  which  the  prosperity  of  inter-  i  We  hope  to  have  a  patient  hearing,  and  we  under- 
nal  Pennsylvania  depends.     We  would  ask  such  per-  take  to  maintain  our  position.     It  is  not  denied  that 
sons,   why  their  candidate  has  not  come  out,  unequi-  Mr.  Adams  is  lawfullv  president,  according  to  all  the 
vocally,  on    a   subject,  with  respect  to  which  he  fortas  of  tb*  constitution,  but  it  is  said  the  spirit  of 
knows  the  people  feel  such  intense  anxiety.     He  has  j  jour  republican  representative  system  has  been  viola- 
been  ready  enough   to  appear  before  the  public,  tojjted.     If  it  has,  we  agree  that  the  people  should  ex- 
criminate  his  rival,  and  give  his  conjectures  and  in    press  their  disapprobation  in  the  most  unequivocal 
ferences,  with  respect  to  alleged   corruption  in  Mr.jjmanner.     But  when  vou  are  called  upon  to  turn  out 
Clay;  but  his  own  sentiments  and  opinions,  in  rela-jfone  man.  because  the  spirit  of  your  government  has 


id 


f 

'ber.n  disregarded,  and  put  in  another  who  has  tram-|  [candidate,  when 

pled  upon'theJeMer  ofyour  constitution  and  laws,  we 

expect  that  you  will  require  full  and  ample  evidence. 

Kow  then  stands  the  case?    In  1824  there  were  four 
'  candidates  for  the  presidency,  and  in  the   electoral 

colleges  Mr.  Adams  had  84  votes,  Gen.  Jackson  99. 

Mr.  Crawford  41,   and  Mr.  Clay  37 — no  one  having 

amajorily  of  the  whole  number,  which  is  necessary 

in  order  to  a  choice — Gen.  Jackson,  the  highest,  had 

little  more  than  one-third.   By  the  12th  article  of  the 

"amendments"  of  the  constitulion,  if  no  person  have 

a  majority  of  the  whole  number  of  electors,  "then 

from  the  persons  having  the  highest  numbers,  not 

exceeding  three  on  the  list  of  those  voted  for  as  pre- 
sident, the  house  e-f  representatives  shall  choose  im- 
mediately by  ballot,  the  president;    but  in  choosing 

the  president,  the  votes  shall  be  taken  by  states,  the 

representation  from  each  state  having  one  vote,"  &c. 

In  this  mode — Mr.  Adams   was  elected,  having  87 

members,  representing  IS  states,  with  a  free  popula- 
tion of  3,530,650 

Gen.  Jackson  had  71  members,  represent- 
ing 7  states,  with  a  free  population  of    2,665,26-2 

Mr.  Crawford  had  54  members,  represent- 
ing 4  states,  with  a  free  population  of     1,850,026 

Mr.  Adams,  therefore, having  13  states  out  of  24,  had 

a  clear  majority,   and  was  constitutionally  elected 

president.  This  is  not  denied;  but  our  opponents  as- 
sert, that  a  "majority  of  the  states,  if  their  ivishes  had 

been  complied  with,  were  opposed  to  his   election 

We  do  not  see  by  what  process  of  reasoning,   those 

ingenious  calculators  arrive  at  the  fact.  It'llii;  majo- 
rity of  the  states  were  opposed  to  Mr.  Adams,  thev 

were  certainly  not  in  favour  of  Gen.  Jackson,  other- 
wise he  would  have  been  elected      In  truth, no  man 

can  tell  what  was  never  ascertained:  the  electoral 

votes  were  divided  among  the  four  candidates,  and 

what  the  result  might  have  been,  if  one  of  them  had 

withdrawn  belore  the  election,  is  entirely  matter  of 

conjecture.     We  do  not  see  how  it  ought  to  affect 

the  integrity  of  Mr.  Adams,  if  even  the  fact  was  as 

stated.     He  did  not   elect  himself, — the  attempt   at 

choice  by  the  people  was   past,  and  he   was  finally 

chosen  in  the  only  way  a  president  eculd  have  been 

chosen.     He  is  again  before  the  nation,  and   let  him 

stand  or  fall  by  its  merits.     But  to  go   really  to  the 

spirit  and  fundamental  principles  of  our  democratic 

institutions,  it  matters  not  (as  regards  the  claim  now 

to  popular  favour,)  how  the  majority  of  the  states,  in 

their  electoral  colleges  were,  as  between  the  two  pre- 
sent candidates,  if  Mr.  Adams  had  a  greater  number 

of  popular  voles.     The  mode  of  electors  is  the  way 

devised  by  the  iv\iuers   of  the   constitution   to   get 

most  conveniently  at  the  public  will.     It  is  a  very 

imperfect  plan,  in  that  respect,  to  he  sure,  because  a 

man  might  have  a  majority  of  electors,  and  yet  not 

have  a  majority  of  popular  totes.     Suppose,   for  in-1 

stance,  there  arc  two  candidates,  in  M  states,    with 

a  votable  population  of  500,000  persons,  and  each 

state  having  one  electoral  vote.     In  10  of  the  states. 

one  of  the  candidates  has  nearly   all  the    votes,  say 

200,000,  which  will  give  him  LO  electoral  votes:  In 

each  of  the  11  remaining  states,  the  opposing  candi- 
date has  a  bare  majority,  yet  he  will  get  11  electoral 

votes.     Now  in    such  a  case,  the  party  who   fails 

might  have  much  the  greater  number  of  popular 

rotes.     The  successful  person  would  be  legally  and 

fairly  elected  according  to  the  constitution,  though 

contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  democracy.     There  are 

inconveniences  in  ever}' mode  that   can   be  devised. 

If  the  election  was  immediately  by  a  plurality  of  '.he 

votes  of  the  people,  which  we  would  prefer,  still  a 


there  are  a  great  many  running, 
imight  be  elected,  and  not  have  one  third  of  the 
whole  number.  In  the  case  we  are  examining,  we 
contend  that  Mr.  Adams  had  a  plurality  of  popular 
votes,  and  therefore  upon  pure  democratic  princi- 
ciples  ought  to  be  president.  For  instance,  in  the 
six  New  England  slates,  as  between  Mr.  Adams  and 
Gen.  Jackson,  Mr.  Adams  had  almost  the  entire  suf- 
frage of  the  people:  in  the  other  states  the  votes  were 
jmuch  divided,  and  although  Gen.  Jackson  bad  ma- 
jorities to  obtain  the  electors,  yet  he  had  not  such 
(majorities  as  would  counterbalance  Mr.  Adams'  ma- 
jorities in  the  eastern  states.  The  following  table 
) will  illustrate  the  argument  we  have  endeavoured  to 
present,  and  which  perhaps  requires  more  develope- 
ment  to  make  it  intelligible: — 


7. 


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In  some  of  the  states  it  will  be  observed  that  the  c- 
leclors  were  chosen  by  the  legislatures.  The  popu- 
lar votes  therefore  in  those  states  is  computed  from 
an  ascertained  ratio  of  the  actual  votes,  with  the 
number  of  voters,  in  the  other  states: — they  are  dis- 
tributed accoidinu  to  the  proportion  of  electoral  votes 
for  each  of  the  candidates.  Thus  in  Vermont,  where 
Adams  had  all  the.  votes  in  the  electoral  college,  we 
have  ^iven  him  the  whole  number  of  popular  votes: 
In  New  York,  they  are  divided  according  to  the  elec- 
toral votes  each  received:  and  in  South  Carolina 
where  Jackson  received  all  the  electoral  votes,  he  is 
allowed  all  the  popular  votes.  The  result  thus  stat- 
ed shews,  that  although  Mr.  Adams  received  166,- 
1 12  votes  of  the  people,  he  had  but  S4  votes  in  the 
electoral  colleges:  while  gen.  Jackson  with  only  153,- 
733  popular  votes,  received  the  votes  of  99  electors. 
If  the  electoral  votes  had  been  in  accordance  with 
the  votes  of  the  people,  Mr.  Adams  would  have  had 
more  than  Jackson.     Our  opponents  complain  that 


15 


Maryland  and  Illinois,  in  congress,  voted  for  Mr.  Ad- 
ams.  Let  us  examine  from  the  data  furnished,  whe- 
ther this  was  not  exactly  as  the  people  wished.     In 
Maryland,  as  the  table  shews,  Mr.  Adams  had  14,- 
632  and  gen.   Jackson  14,523  popular  votes.     Now 
upon  pure  democratic  principles  Mr.  Adams  ought  to 
have  got  all  the  electoral  votes  of  that  state,  and  il 
the  election  had  been  chosen  as  in  Pennsylvania  by  a 
general  ticket,  he  would  have  had  them.   But  in  the 
division  of  districts  it  happened  that  gen.  Jackson, 
with  a  less  number  of  popular  votes,  obtained  7  elec- 
toral votes.  If  Mr.  Adams  had  obtained  them.the  result 
would  have  been  92  each.     In  Illinois  also  Mr.  Ad- 
,'ams   had  1541,  and  gen.  Jackson  only  1272  votes 
/of  the  people — Upon  the  same  principle   Adams 
v  therefore  ought  to  have  bad  the  electoral  votes  of 
Ahat  state;  yet  Jackson  got  2  and  he  only  one.     If  we 
,  take  those  2  from  the  general,  and  add  them  to  Mr. 
:   Adams,  it   would   then   stand  thus — Adams  94 — 
Jackson  90. 

There  is  another  fact  which  appears  from  this  ta- 
ble, that  ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  In  the  South- 
ern states,  where  general  Jackson  had  his  majeri- 
ties,  the  slave  population  is  represented  in  the  pro- 
portion of  Jive  to  three  whites.  Electors  were  chosen 
accordingly.  Five  slaves  therefore  had  as  much  po 
litical  power  as  three  free  whites,  in  the  eastern  or 
middle  states.  It  is  evident  therefore  that  Mr.  Ad 
ams  had  in  truth  a  very  large  plurality  of  the  free 
voters  of  the  United  States.  The  subjoined  table 
will  illustrate  this  argument. — 


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jit  would  have  been  if  Maryland  and  Illintft  1 

[entire  for  Mr.  Adams,  according  to  the  po\ja„  ;°.ne 

viz.  94  for  Adams  and  90  for  Jackson.     E\:n    °.    ' 

the  slave  vote  altogether,  which  would   sub\Jfu  . 

x>  in 

Ad- 

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whole  numbers,  ten  from  Jackson  and  one 
ams.     It  would  then  stand — Adams  93  and 
SO  only — Thus  in  every  point  of  view,  it  is  c 


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From  the  above  table  it  will  appear  that  from  the 
slave  holding  states,  Jackson  received  44  and  Adams 
but  4  electoral  votes.  The  senatorial  representation 
is  not  taken  into  account,  as  it  would  not  affect  the 
calculation  either  way.  It  will  also  appear,  that  of 
pure  slave  votes  Jackson  received  nearly  1 1  and  Ad- 
ams 1  only.     Now  take  the  result  as  we  have  shewn 


the  voice  of  the  greater  number  is  to  be  an 
tionjhat  Adams  was  the  choice  of  the  free  peopli 
the  United  States,  and  the  main  argument  of  our  1 
ponents  falls  to  the  ground. 

But  it  is  useless  to  occupy  your  time  in  this  fruit^ 
less  enquiry.     Our  opponents  cannot  doubt  that  Mr. 
Adams  is  not  only  constitutionally   but  honorably  e- 
lected,  unless  they  can  make  out  a  fact  which   has 
been  alleged,,  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Adams  was  elected 
by  a  corrupt  arrangement  with  Mr.  Clay,   by  which 
ithe  votes  of  several  states  were  turned  over  to  him. 
jThis  vile  charge  has  been  at  length  traced  to  Gen. 
^Jackson  himself,  and  he  appears  before  the  nation  as 
the  accuser  of  Mr.  Clay.     By  doing  so  he  has  put 
himself  in  an  awkward  situation  as  respects  the  pro- 
priety of  his  own  official  conduct.     According  to  his 
statement,  corrupt  propositions  were  communicated 
to  him  some  lime  before  the  election   in    the  House 
of  Representatives.     When  the  nomination   of  Mr. 
Clay,  as  secretary  of  state  was  made  to  the  senate, 
Gen.  Jackson,  instead  of  disclosing  the  information 
he  had  received,  and  demanding   an  investigation, 
remained  perfectly  silent,  and  permitted  his  fellow- 
members  to  concur  in  the  appointment.     This   in- 
volves him  in  a  dilemma:  either  he  had  not  the  know- 
ledge he  now  pretends,  or  he  was  guilty  of  a  gross 
dereliction  of  public  duty  in  not  exposing  the  infa- 
mous conspiracy.     The  same  charge  he  afterwards 
insinuates  into  circulation  by  means  of  Mr.    Carter 
Beverly,  from  bistable  at  the  Hermitage.     When 
brought  home  to  him,  he  alleged  that  one  of  his  own 
friends,   Mr.  Buchanan,  had  conveyed  to  him  the 
propositions  which  he  understood  to  come  from  Mr. 
Clay.  Is  he  supported  in  this  averment?    Not  at  all: 
On  the  contrary   Mr.  Buchanan   has  contradicted 
[him  in  every  material  particular,  and  most  triumph- 
antly vindicated  Mr.  Clay  and   his  friends  from   the 
base  suggestions.     Every  rag  of  covering  has  been 
torn  from  the  vile  contrivance,  and  it  stands  before 
the  people  in  all  its  naked  deformity.     The   web  of 
moonshine  which  Mr.  John  H.  Eaton,  the  Pensaco- 
la  speculator,  has  since  endeavored  to  throw  over  it, 
cannot  conceal  it  from  the  scorn  and  indignation  of 
the   public.     His   publishing  letters  without  names, 
statins;  facts  that  never  existed,  will  not  do  any  long- 
er.    The  people  are  not  to  be  deceived:    they  must 
have  facts  and  evidence.     Mr.  Cla3r  is  like  gold  tried 
in  the  fire.     He  stands  as  high  in  honor  as  he  is  ele- 
vated by  his  talents  and  distinguished  by  his  services 
— He  braves  the  severest  scrutiny — But   it  is  unne 
cessary  to  offer  defence  where  there  is  no  accusatir 
The  charge  of  corruption  is  blown  sky  high:    ■ 
tatter  of  it  floats  in  the  air — The  Jackson  c 
have  not  ventured  tp   reiterate  the  cal' 
should,  however,  have  been  more  pi' 
candor,  if  no  lurking  insinuation  v 
their  address.     The  only  que- 
before  the  people  then,  is  <- 
the  integrity  of  either  M 
one  of  political  princ' 
differ: — Does  the 
jtive  and  his  ir 
ilection  ofr 
jduty  thf 
'thosf 


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LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS 


jihad  fondly 
[Hon— but  thy 
hasjdisregarded  ev 


0  011  899  409  7    • 


ias 
las 


i  ,a,,(_jecause  the  fact's  do  not  present  it  in  Art II 
s6*j>C5Be — No  instructions  were  given   by  thejji 
Pre   vf  nor  could  there  have  been.     The  law  has|  < 

Pe0*\rd  no  mode  by  which  their  wishes  in  the  par- trampled  under  loot  the  raws  and  constitution  oi "his 

P.r0.r  contingency  can   he   ascertained.     Any  ex-||country — and    who  has  substituted  his  own  ungov- 

■ion  made  by  a  public  meeting  is   by  no  meansjjern;ible  will  as  his  only.rule  of  conduct— thy  support 

Psfactory  as  to  the  real  state  of  popular  sentiroeut.jof  such  aman,  shakes  my  conlidence  in  the  capacity 

a*  surely  it  cannot  be  pretended  that;  the  legisla-ljof  man  for  self  government,  and   I  fear  all  is  lost.'1 

jre  of  a  state  can  undertake  to  decide  what  the  o  ;But   if  you  allow  your  judgment  to  controul  your 

pinions  of  the  people  are  on  the  subject.  It  is  a  ma<  I  passions;  if  you  will  investigate  and  form  your  deli- 

ter  not  confided  to  them,  and  their  interference  is  u-  berate  opinion  of  your  true  interests  aud  duty,  from 

surpation.    This  subject  might  be  discussed  with]  evidmce,  you   will  avoid  the  destiny  that  otherwise 

profit,  perhaps  more   in  detail,  but 

have  occupied  yon  too  long. 

We  would  conclude,   fellow   ci 


lemn  appeal  to  your  good  sense  andlove  of  freedom. 
If  you  prize  the  free  institutions  of  your  country,  we 
entreat  you  not  to  founder  them  uf.cn-  the  rock  where 
every  republic,  heretofore,  has  split. — Should  vio- 
lence and  proscription  succeed  in  procuring  the  elec- 
tion of  general  Jackson,  our  liberties  are  gone.  The 
forms  of  our  political  organization  may  for  a  short 
time  be  continued,  but  the  substance  is  taken  away. 
A  military  despotism  will  overawe  the  exercise  of 
our  privileges  and  make  them  subservient  to  the 
will  of  a  tyrant.  If  a  phrenzied  devotion  to  an  idol 
has  not  subverted  your  reason,  we  call  upon  you  to 
pause  and  reflect  upon  the  facts  we  have  disclosed. 
Attend  to  the  lesson  of  experience;  let  history  speak 
to  you  in  the  lang-uage  of  warning  and  admonition  I 
and,  finally,  hear  the  voice  of  your  beloved  Jeffer- 
son, who,  from  the  brink  of  the  grave  addressed  to 
you  his  apprehension  of  your  impending  ruin,  in) 
these  awful  and  portentous  words — "My  country. 
thou  too,  will  experience  the  fate  which  has  befallen 
every  free  government: — thy  liberties  will  he  sacri 
ficed   to  the  glory  of  some  military  chieftain.     I 


we  feel   that  we!  awaits  you  and  us — and  am.  will  be  safe. 

We  are  with  the  utmost  sincerity,  in  our  common 
•zens,  with  a  so-||ca»se,  your  friends  and  servants,  «§*e 


Thomas  H.  Baird, 
John  Johnson, 
Richard  Bard, 
Robert  Colmery, 
Joseph  Henderson, 
John  Reed, 
James  Keys, 
James  Kerr, 
Robert  M'Farland, 
William  Welsh, 
John  Rodgers, 
John  Myers, 
Andrew  Sutton, 
Abel  M'Farland, 
Thomas  Vennom, 
William  Lindley, 
John  M'Coy, 
George  Wilson, 
James  M'Quown, 
Henry  Alter, 
James  Allison, 


David  Clark, 
James  Boyd, 
John  Bovd, 
ThomasM'Call, 
Walter  Craig, 
William  Vance, 
Benjamin  Bubbit, 
Thomas  Walker, 
James  Proudfoot, 
James  M'Farren, 
John  Vanee, 
Samuel  M'Glaughlin, 
George  Murray, 
William  Berry, 
Joseph  Reed, 
Thomas  M-Glau;hlin, 
Joseph  Crawford, 
Jonathan  Leatherman, 
Alexander  Gordon, 
William  Colmery, 
David  Hay. 

Committee;